Most property sold in Costa Rica is defined in terms of hectares and square meters. This can be a minor but irritating stumbling block for investors who may be more used to thinking of property and structures in terms of acres and square feet.
While it is true that a meter is roughly equivalent to a yard, a square meter is not, in fact, equivalent to nine square feet.
Why?
One meter measures approximately 39.3 inches; that is to say, 3.3 inches more than a yard. When the meter is squared, those extra 3.3 inches make a considerable difference–one square meter is actually very slightly more than 10.75 square feet–a figure worth knowing when discussing construction areas!
Similarly, property areas are generally given as a combination of hectares and square meters. One hectare is, conceptually, a square measuring 100 meters on each side. (While there is no such thing as a standard city block, Costa Ricans generally use “100 meters” and “one block” interchangeably so a hectare is, in many peoples´ minds, about the size of a city block.)
In precise terms, a hectare equals 10,000 square meters. This is equivalent to 107,639 square feet, or 11,960 square yards. Perhaps most usefully, one hectare equals approximately 2.5 acres (use 2.471 for a more exact conversion).
Most land surveys give the area in a combination of hectares and meters. The key in this case is to remember that 1 ha = 10,000 m2, so a property that measures, for instance, 2ha150m2 has an area of 20,150 square meters in all.
Consult one of the many free online conversion utilities (Online Conversion is one) to quickly convert between any combination of these units.
