Tools · Measurement · 5 units
Plot size and dimensions
The same plot is discussed in cents, recorded in guntha, drawn in feet, sold in square feet and planned in square metres — five figures for one piece of ground, and no two people in the conversation converting between them. This page converts, shows the arithmetic behind every factor it uses, and separates the conversions that are exact by definition from the ones that are customary. Then it says what the dimensions do and do not decide about what can be built.
5 units — 3 exact by definition, 2 customary. Nothing typed here leaves your browser. Reviewed · all tools
One extent, five units
Commas and spaces are forgiven. Nothing you type leaves the browser.
The conversion
One extent, every unit it gets quoted in
Type a figure, choose the unit it is written in, and read it in the other four. The page opens on a single acre so there is something to read before you touch anything.
Commas and spaces are forgiven. Decimals are not rounded before the arithmetic runs — only the display is rounded, to the number of places each unit deserves.
Exact, or customary
An exact factor is fixed by definition and cannot be argued with. A customary one is a subdivision of the acre in general use in South Indian revenue practice — the arithmetic below is the value in ordinary use, and where your document states an extent in one of them, the document’s figure governs and this page’s does not.
The same extent, five ways
- square feet
- 43,560exact
- square metres
- 4,046.86exact
- cents
- 100customary
- guntha
- 40customary
- acres
- 1exact
A conversion is not a verification. The dimension on the layout drawing, the area in the sale deed and the extent in the revenue record can differ, and where they do it is the documents that settle it — not this panel.
The factors, with their arithmetic
Where each conversion comes from
A factor you cannot check is a factor you are trusting. Each row below carries the arithmetic that produces it, whether it is exact or customary, and the trap that comes with the unit.
Square foot
Exact by definition
1 sq ft — the base unit
The base unit everything here converts through.
The unit apartment and plot sizes are quoted in across this corridor. It says nothing about what the figure measures — that is the question the carpet-area tool is about.
Square metre
Exact by definition
1 sq m = 10.7639 sq ft
One international foot is 0.3048 metres exactly, so one square metre is 1 ÷ 0.3048² square feet.
The unit statutory and planning documents commonly use, and the unit a sanctioned plan is likely to be drawn in. A brochure in square feet and a plan in square metres are describing the same building.
Cent
Customary
1 cent = 435.6 sq ft
One hundred cents to the acre, so one cent is 43,560 ÷ 100 square feet.
The everyday unit for land on the Tamil Nadu side of this corridor, and in much of Karnataka's countryside. Plots are discussed in cents and sold in square feet, which is how the same plot acquires two sizes in one conversation.
Guntha
Customary
1 guntha = 1,089 sq ft
Forty guntha to the acre, so one guntha is 43,560 ÷ 40 square feet — the same figure a 33-foot square gives.
The unit Karnataka revenue records use for a fraction of an acre. Survey extracts are commonly written as acres and guntha together, and a figure quoted as though it were decimal acres is a different number.
Acre
Exact by definition
1 acre = 43,560 sq ft
4,840 square yards, and nine square feet to the square yard.
The unit a land parcel and a project's land area are stated in. An acre is the same acre in both states; the subdivisions people quote it in are not.
Units this page will not convert
Ground, kuzhi and veli
Tamil land measures in ordinary use, whose values differ between districts and between the revenue record and the market. Read the figure your document states rather than converting into or out of these here.
Ankanam, mane and kolam
Local measures used in parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, again by custom rather than by a single definition. The same word does not carry the same value everywhere it is spoken.
Bigha, katha and marla
Northern and eastern measures with several different values in current use. Nothing on this corridor is measured in them, and converting them from memory is how a parcel changes size on paper.
Naming the absences is the scope statement. Each of these is in live use somewhere in South India and each has more than one value in current use, so a conversion printed here would be a claim about somebody’s district rather than a calculation.
Worked example
A registered plotted layout's own sizes
The Big Banyan publishes 5 plot sizes, each as a dimension pair and an area. The land is in Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu, registered with TNRERA under TNRERA/30/LO/1146/2026. Every figure in the table is read out of our project data rather than re-typed here.
| Dimensions (ft) | Area as published | Square metres | Cents | Guntha |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 x 37 | 750 sq.ft | 69.68 | 1.722 | 0.689 |
| 30 x 40 | 1200 sq.ft | 111.48 | 2.755 | 1.102 |
| 30 x 50 | 1500 sq.ft | 139.35 | 3.444 | 1.377 |
| 30 x 60 | 1800 sq.ft | 167.23 | 4.132 | 1.653 |
| 40 x 60 | 2400 sq.ft | 222.97 | 5.51 | 2.204 |
Multiplying the pair, and reporting the result
A dimension pair and an area are two statements about the same rectangle, so one is a test of the other. The test runs at render on every published size: 4 of 5 pairs multiply out to the published figure exactly.
- 20 x 37 multiplies out to 740 square feet, and the published figure is 750.
That difference is reported rather than smoothed away, because a page whose own check fails and says nothing is worth less than no check at all. A published dimension label is a nominal description of a plot type; the extent that has legal effect is the one in the sale deed and the approved layout, and where the two differ it is the documents that govern.
One thing about this record we have not resolved
Our own project data describes the location two ways. The address line reads “Sarjapur to Bagalur Main Road, Bagalur, Hosur”, while the jurisdiction note on the same record places the land at Belathur, Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. The state, the district and the taluk are not in doubt and the registration is with TNRERA. The VILLAGE is unresolved, and this page marks it unresolved rather than picking the reading that reads better — only the certificate settles it.
Our published jurisdiction note, verbatim: “Belathur, Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu — registered with TNRERA. This is the Bagalur on the Sarjapur–Hosur corridor, not the Bagalur near Kempegowda International Airport.”
SourcesSUYUG InfraTamil Nadu Real Estate Regulatory Authority — TNRERA portal (opens in a new tab)
What the dimensions decide
Area is not the question people think it is
Two plots of identical extent do not yield the same house. What can be built is decided by the shape, by the open space the bye-laws require on each side, and by the floor area ratio the zone permits — and only the first of those is a property of the plot.
Frontage and depth are not interchangeable
Two plots of the same area with different proportions do not yield the same house. Setbacks are subtracted from each side, so a narrow deep plot loses a larger share of its width than a square one of identical extent — which is why the area alone never answers the question people ask it.
Setbacks are subtracted before anything is designed
The open space a building must leave on each side is fixed by the building bye-laws applying to the plot, and it is the first thing taken off the plot, not the last. The buildable rectangle this page computes is what remains once the setbacks you enter are removed from the plot dimensions you enter.
The floor area ratio decides how much can sit on that footprint
The permissible ratio between total floor area and plot area is fixed by the zoning regulations and bye-laws for that plot, as in force on the date of application. There is no national constant and no single correct figure, so none is published here — read it from the authority's regulations for your zone. Our glossary entry on FAR and FSI says the same thing at more length.
Which authority, before which rule
On the Karnataka side of this corridor a planning authority acts under the Karnataka Town and Country Planning Act, 1961; on the Tamil Nadu side the equivalent work is done under the Tamil Nadu Town and Country Planning Act, 1971. Two statutes, two authorities, two sets of regulations — so the second question, which rule applies, has no answer until the first one, which state, is settled.
The buildable rectangle, from your plot and your setbacks
Every number below is yours. This page holds no bye-law and no zoning table, so it cannot suggest a setback — take the four figures from the authority with jurisdiction over the plot, or from the sanctioned plan if you already have one, and this will subtract them.
Fill in the six figures and the buildable rectangle appears here. A blank setback is treated as no figure rather than as zero, because assuming zero would hand you a footprint no authority would sanction.
A footprint is not a sanction, and a share of the plot is not a permitted coverage. What may be built is decided by the sanctioned plan, against the authority’s own regulations in force on the day the application is made. Our glossary entry on FAR and FSI explains why no ratio is published anywhere on this site.
Read this before you rely on it
What this tool cannot do
Arithmetic is the easy half. These five sentences are the half that decides whether the arithmetic is any use to you.
The setback figures are yours, not ours. This page holds no bye-law, no zoning table and no permissible floor area ratio, because those are set by the planning authority with jurisdiction over your plot and they differ by zone, by road width and by plot size. Type in the numbers your authority gives you.
A footprint is not a sanction. What may actually be built is decided by the sanctioned plan, and the sanctioned plan is decided by the authority against its own regulations in force on the day you apply — not by arithmetic done in a browser.
Converting a plot size does not verify a plot size. The dimension on the layout drawing, the area in the sale deed and the extent in the revenue record can differ, and where they do it is the documents that settle it, in that order of legal weight.
The cent and the guntha are customary subdivisions, in general use and not defined by any statute quoted here. Where a document states an extent in one of them, that stated extent governs and this page's conversion does not.
Nothing here is a distance, a travel time or a direction. This is a measurement tool; how far a plot is from anything is not a measurement it makes.
Sources
What was read, and what it holds up
Krishnagiri District Administration, Government of Tamil Nadu
Town Planning (opens in a new tab)krishnagiri.nic.in
The Hosur New Town Development Authority, and the schedule of villages the Hosur Development Plan 2046 covers — listed by the district alongside, and separately from, Hosur Municipal Corporation and Kelamangalam Town Panchayat.
The register a project on Tamil Nadu land is registered on, and searched on.
SUYUG's own published configuration areas and plot sizes, which every worked example on these pages is derived from rather than re-typed. What our project data does NOT record is the basis those apartment areas are stated on, and that absence is itself published here.
The registration numbers and survey lines transcribed from SUYUG's own certificates — the primary-source route to the declared particulars that a brochure area is not a substitute for.
The verbatim text of section 2(k) of the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016, transcribed once for the whole site. Every quotation of it on these pages is read out of that one entry rather than re-typed.
Every address above was opened on . Government sites move their pages; if one of these no longer resolves, the fact it holds up is unverified until someone finds where it went, not true because it was true once.
The conversion factors are not sourced to a web page because they are not the kind of thing a web page settles: an acre is 4,840 square yards and an international foot is 0.3048 metres, and the arithmetic that turns those into every figure on this page is printed beside each one. The customary subdivisions are labelled as such, and where a document states an extent in one of them, that document governs.