Direct answer: In Maharashtra, 1 acre = 40 guntha = 4,046.86 sq m = 43,560 sq ft. One guntha is exactly 1,089 sq ft (101.17 sq m), and one hectare is 10,000 sq m = 2.471 acres = 98.84 guntha. Bigha is not a standardised unit anywhere in India and is not used in Maharashtra’s official land records at all.
Key Takeaways
- 1 guntha = 1,089 sq ft = 101.17 sq m = 1.0117 are — the working unit for agricultural and NA plot deals across Maharashtra.
- 40 guntha = 1 acre = 43,560 sq ft = 4,046.86 sq m.
- 1 hectare = 10,000 sq m = 2.471 acres = 98.84 guntha = 1,07,639 sq ft.
- 1 are = 100 sq m = 1,076.39 sq ft — the “R” in the H-R-P notation on your 7/12 extract.
- Bigha has no single national value. It ranges from roughly 1,600 sq ft to over 27,000 sq ft depending on the state and even the district. Never accept a bigha figure without asking which local bigha is meant.
- Maharashtra’s 7/12 extract records area in hectare–are–square metre (H-R-P), not in guntha or bigha — the conversion to guntha is something you do yourself.
Why Maharashtra Uses Three Systems at Once
Anyone buying land in Maharashtra runs into the same friction within the first week. The broker quotes the plot in guntha. The seller talks in acres. The 7/12 extract — the only document that legally matters — states the area in hectares and ares. And somewhere on a WhatsApp forward, a listing from another state quotes bigha.
These are not competing measurements. They are three layers of history stacked on the same piece of ground: the metric system that state revenue departments adopted after 1960, the imperial acre inherited from British survey settlements, and the pre-colonial regional units that never fully disappeared from spoken practice. Guntha survives because it is genuinely useful — it is small enough to price a plot precisely and it divides an acre into exactly forty parts.
Getting the arithmetic wrong here is not an academic problem. A ten per cent error in a stated area is a ten per cent error in the price you pay, in the stamp duty computed on ready reckoner rates, and in what you can build once the land is converted — and what actually changes when agricultural land becomes NA land is measured on exactly these areas. The table below is the whole system in one place.
Master Conversion Table: Every Unit Cross-Referenced
| Unit | Square metres | Square feet | Are | Guntha | Acre | Hectare |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 square metre | 1 | 10.7639 | 0.01 | 0.009884 | 0.000247 | 0.0001 |
| 1 square foot | 0.092903 | 1 | 0.000929 | 0.000918 | 0.0000230 | 0.0000093 |
| 1 are | 100 | 1,076.39 | 1 | 0.9884 | 0.02471 | 0.01 |
| 1 guntha | 101.17 | 1,089 | 1.0117 | 1 | 0.025 | 0.010117 |
| 1 acre | 4,046.86 | 43,560 | 40.4686 | 40 | 1 | 0.404686 |
| 1 hectare | 10,000 | 1,07,639 | 100 | 98.84 | 2.4711 | 1 |
Two relationships are worth memorising because everything else follows from them. First, 40 guntha make an acre — so a quarter-acre is 10 guntha and half an acre is 20 guntha. Second, a guntha and an are are almost, but not quite, the same thing (101.17 sq m versus 100 sq m, a 1.17 per cent difference). That near-equivalence is convenient for rough mental maths and dangerous for contracts. On a five-acre parcel, treating are and guntha as identical misstates the area by well over 2,000 sq ft.
Bigha: The Unit With No Fixed Value
This section matters more than any other on this page, because bigha is where most cross-state land conversations go wrong.
There is no such thing as “one bigha” in India. Bigha is a regional customary unit whose value was fixed independently by different revenue administrations, and in several states it still varies between districts and between the older kaccha and pucca variants within the same district. Anyone who gives you a single national bigha-to-square-feet number is giving you a number that is wrong somewhere.
| State / region | Approximate 1 bigha in sq ft | Approximate in sq m | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| West Bengal | ~14,400 | ~1,338 | Standardised at 1,600 sq yd under colonial administration |
| Assam | ~14,400 | ~1,338 | Also expressed as 5 katha |
| Bihar | ~27,220 | ~2,529 | Roughly 0.625 acre |
| Rajasthan (pucca) | ~27,225 | ~2,529 | Kaccha bigha is substantially smaller |
| Rajasthan (kaccha) | ~17,424 | ~1,619 | Both variants in live use |
| Gujarat | ~17,427 | ~1,619 | Roughly 0.4 acre |
| Uttar Pradesh | Varies widely by district | Varies | Built from biswa; the number of biswa per bigha differs locally |
| Madhya Pradesh | ~12,000 | ~1,115 | Regional variation reported |
| Punjab & Haryana | ~9,070 | ~843 | Used alongside kanal and marla |
| Himachal Pradesh | ~8,712 | ~809 | One-fifth of an acre |
| Maharashtra | Not used in land records | — | Official area is hectare–are; trade uses guntha and acre |
The practical rule: never sign, price, or compare on a bigha figure. Ask for the area in square metres or hectares as it appears on the official record of that state, and do your own conversion from there. In Maharashtra this problem is largely avoided, because bigha does not appear on the 7/12 extract, the 8A extract, or the property card.
How Land Area Appears on a 7/12 Extract: The H-R-P Format
Open any Maharashtra 7/12 extract (Satbara Utara) and you will find the area written as three numbers separated by dots — something like 1.25.50. This is the H-R-P format:
- H — Hectare (10,000 sq m)
- R — Are (100 sq m)
- P — Point / Chaurus Meter (1 sq m). Some extracts label this column Chau. Mi. or simply show it as the third field.
So 1.25.50 reads as 1 hectare, 25 are and 50 square metres. To convert:
- Total in sq m: (1 × 10,000) + (25 × 100) + 50 = 12,550 sq m
- In acres: 12,550 ÷ 4,046.86 = 3.10 acres
- In guntha: 12,550 ÷ 101.17 = 124.05 guntha
- In sq ft: 12,550 × 10.7639 = 1,35,087 sq ft
Read the extract carefully for two things beyond the total. First, the 7/12 separates Lagvad Yogya (cultivable) area from Pot Kharaba (uncultivable — rocky patches, nullahs, internal paths). The headline area may include Pot Kharaba that you cannot farm or build on. Second, where a survey number has been sub-divided, the area shown belongs to that specific Hissa number, not the parent survey number. Confirm you are reading the row that matches the Hissa in your agreement.
Worked Examples
Example 1 — A 20-guntha plot
20 guntha × 1,089 sq ft = 21,780 sq ft. In metric: 20 × 101.17 = 2,023.4 sq m. As a fraction of an acre: 20 ÷ 40 = 0.5 acre. On a 7/12 this would appear as approximately 0.20.23 (0 hectare, 20 are, 23 sq m).
Example 2 — A 2.5-acre parcel to hectares
2.5 acres × 4,046.86 = 10,117.15 sq m, which is 1.0117 hectares, or in H-R-P notation 1.01.17. In guntha: 2.5 × 40 = 100 guntha. Note how close 1.0117 hectares is to a round hectare — this is the same 1.17 per cent guntha-versus-are gap showing up at parcel scale.
Example 3 — A rate quoted per guntha
If a plot is quoted at ₹8 lakh per guntha, the per-acre price is ₹8 lakh × 40 = ₹3.2 crore per acre, and the per-square-foot price is ₹8,00,000 ÷ 1,089 = ₹734 per sq ft. Converting to per-sq-ft is the fastest way to sanity-check a land quote against nearby comparables and against the applicable ready reckoner rate. For development land the same area figure feeds straight into the buildability calculation, where FSI and FAR translate plot area into permissible built-up area and therefore into land value.
Practical Cautions Before You Transact
Three habits prevent almost every area dispute we see. One: take the area from the 7/12 extract or property card, never from a brochure or a broker’s sheet. Two: where the record area and the physical plot appear to differ, order a measurement (mojani) from the Taluka Inspector of Land Records rather than relying on a tape and a boundary wall — boundary walls move, survey maps do not. Three: when a document mixes units, restate everything in square metres before comparing. Square metres are the common denominator of every Maharashtra land record. Once the area is settled, check what the parcel’s land-use zone actually permits — R-Zone, Green Zone or No-Development Zone — because a correctly measured plot in a restricted zone is still a restricted plot.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many guntha are there in one acre?
Exactly 40. One acre is 43,560 square feet and one guntha is 1,089 square feet, so 1,089 multiplied by 40 gives 43,560. This relationship is exact, not approximate.
How many guntha are there in one hectare?
Approximately 98.84 guntha. One hectare is 10,000 square metres and one guntha is 101.17 square metres, so 10,000 divided by 101.17 gives 98.84. A hectare is slightly less than 100 guntha, which is why treating are and guntha as interchangeable creates errors.
Is one bigha the same everywhere in India?
No. Bigha is not a standardised unit. Its value differs by state and in several states by district, and some states use both a kaccha and a pucca bigha of different sizes. Values in common use range from roughly 1,600 square feet to more than 27,000 square feet. Never transact on a bigha figure without converting it to square metres against the local land record.
Is bigha used in Maharashtra land records?
No. Maharashtra revenue records including the 7/12 extract, the 8A extract and the urban property card state area in hectare, are and square metre. Guntha and acre are used widely in trade and conversation, but bigha is not part of the state’s official or common land vocabulary.
What does H-R-P mean on a 7/12 extract?
H-R-P stands for hectare, are and point, where point is one square metre. An area shown as 1.25.50 means 1 hectare, 25 are and 50 square metres, which is 12,550 square metres or about 3.10 acres.
Sources
- Maharashtra Bhulekh — Digitally Signed 7/12 and 8A Extracts (Government of Maharashtra)
- Mahabhumi — Maharashtra Land Records Portal, including cadastral survey maps (Government of Maharashtra)
- NIST — SI Units and Metric Conversion Reference
Related Reading
- Maharashtra Land Records Portals: The Complete Directory of Government Websites
- 7/12 to Property Card: Maharashtra’s 2026 Land Record Reform Explained
- 8A Extract Explained: The Land Record Companion to 7/12 in Maharashtra
- Bhunaksha Maharashtra: Verifying Land Boundaries and Survey Maps via Government GIS
- Land Zoning in MMR: R-Zone, Green Zone and No-Development Zone Explained
- FSI and FAR in Maharashtra: How Buildability Drives Land Value
- NA vs Agricultural Land in Maharashtra: What Actually Changes
- Case Study: Infrastructure-Triggered Land Appreciation in the Karjat Corridor
- Talk to THE EDGE about a specific parcel
Measure Twice, Buy Once
Conversion arithmetic is the easiest part of land due diligence to get right and one of the most expensive to get wrong. At THE EDGE, area verification sits inside our Land Intelligence foundation — the shared research capability that powers our Land Development, Spotlight, Corporate Advisory and E-Learning verticals. If you are evaluating a parcel in Karjat, Khopoli, Neral or anywhere along the Mumbai–Pune corridor and want the recorded area, the physical area and the buildable area reconciled before you commit, get in touch with our team.
Written by Girish Chhalwani, Founder & CEO of THE EDGE, drawing on 20+ years in Maharashtra land development and advisory.
