Area converter
Square metres, square feet, acres and hectares, all at once. For floor areas and land.
Area scales as the square
A metre is 3.281 feet, so a square metre is 3.281 squared, which is 10.764 square feet. This trips people up constantly: the area factor is not the length factor.
The practical consequence is that doubling a room's dimensions quadruples its floor area, and a 10% error in a measured length becomes a 21% error in the area calculated from it.
Acres and hectares, both still in use
An acre is 4,840 square yards, about 4,047 m². The awkward number is historical: roughly what a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, later standardised as a furlong by a chain.
A hectare is 10,000 m², a square 100 metres on a side, and about 2.47 acres. Britain uses both: land changes hands in acres in conversation and in listings, while the Land Registry, farm payments and planning documents are in hectares.
Floor area is not one number
Before converting a property's floor area, check which floor area it is. Gross internal area includes internal walls and is what most listings quote. Net internal area excludes them and is smaller. Gross external area includes the external walls and is larger again.
The gap between the first two can be 10% on a small flat, which is far more than any rounding in the conversion.
Common questions
- How many square feet are in a square metre?
- About 10.764. The number is not a coincidence: area scales as the square of length, so a metre being 3.281 feet makes a square metre 3.281 squared, which is 10.764 square feet. This is also why doubling a room's dimensions quadruples its floor area.
- How big is an acre?
- 4,840 square yards, or about 4,047 square metres. The traditional definition is the area a yoke of oxen could plough in a day, which is why it is an awkward number. A football pitch is roughly 1.8 acres, and a hectare is about 2.47 acres.
- Acres or hectares for land?
- Both are in use in Britain. Land is bought and sold in acres in conversation and in many listings, while the Land Registry, farm payments and planning documents use hectares. A hectare is 10,000 square metres, a square 100 m on each side.
- Why are UK property listings in square feet?
- Convention, largely from the London market and from American practice, though new build listings increasingly give both. Note that what counts as floor area varies: gross internal area includes internal walls and is what most listings quote, which is not the same as the usable floor you can furnish.