WHAT IS THE STANDARD MEASUREMENT FOR PLOTS OF LAND IN NIGERIA?

As a foreigner living in Nigeria or a potential buyer wishing to build a new house, you will often find things are not done quite the way you are used to, and buying land is no exception. The first hurdle is understanding the system of land measurements in Nigeria.

In Nigeria, land is measured in Hectares, Acres, Meters and Feet. These measurements are affected by factors which includes but not limited to, economic investment and development patterns, human and environmental factors which could lead to mass migration and artificial scarcity of lands suitable for development.

Lot of people ask, what exactly is the size of a standard plot of land in Nigeria?

According to the dictionary meaning of plot, it is a marked out piece of land for the purpose of building or farming. The word "plot" is an arbitrary term used to describe a land division carved out for property development.

The size of a plot of land can vary for different reasons but according to Nigeria's land divisions, the appropriate plot for a house construction is 100 x 50ft which can accommodate a standard house with a small compound. To better understand land divisions used in Nigeria, different units of area are used as follows:

Hectares (ha)

A hectare is one of the least known metric units and one which potential buyers and estate developers seems to struggle with - it is a land measuring 100m x 100m or 328ft x 328ft. It is about two and half acres.

Acre

An Acre is a standard unit of measurement used by land sellers and it is almost an equivalent to the size of a standard football field. An acre is a product of any rectangular plot of land giving a total of 4,046sqm or 43,560sq ft.

Tenth of an acre, half an acre, one-sixth of an ace - what does all this mean?

In relation to land measurements, the above divisions constitutes some fraction of an acre which means a plot can be

50 x 100ft  / 15.2 x 30.5m - 463.6sqm (which means there are 8.7 plots of land measuring 463.6sqm in an acre)

60 x 120ft  / 18.3 x 36.6m - 669.8sqm (which means there are 6 plots of land measuring 669.8sqm in an acre)

100 x 100ft  / 30.5 x 30.5m 930.25sqm (which means there are 4.3 plots of land measuring 930.25sqm in an acre)

As a designer and builder, I give a lot of consideration to the size of land and try to come up with a design that would not only just look great, but also would make the best use of the land.