1 dönüm = 1,000 m² · Türkiye’s everyday land measure

Dönüm calculator

Type any size of land and see it in dönüm, square metres, hectares and acres, drawn to scale on a surveyor’s sheet. Then measure a field, split a title deed, price it per dönüm, see what may be built on it and what it would grow.

1,000 m²

Counted the old way: 1 dönüm

80% of an Olympic pool

Type a number, with a unit if you like — even several: “2 dönüm 1 evlek”.

Drawn to scale: a square of about 31.6 × 31.6 m.

The same land in every unit

Dönüm · decare
11,000 m², the same as a decare
Square metres
1,000as on a modern title deed
Hectares
0.110 dönüm, 10,000 m²
Acres
0.2474,046.86 m², about 4 dönüm
Square feet
10,7640.0929 m²
Evlek
4a quarter dönüm, 250 m²
Ares · sotkas
10100 m²; a sotka in Russian
Square kilometres
0.0011,000 dönüm
Old Ottoman dönüm
1.091,600 square arşın, 918.7 m² (land registry)
Cyprus dönüm
0.74714,400 sq ft ≈ 1,337.8 m²
Iraqi dunam
0.42,500 m²
Feddans (Egypt)
0.2384,200.83 m², 24 qirats
Measure

Measure a field with what you have

A tape measure, the lengths of the sides, the corner coordinates from a survey, your phone’s GPS or your own steps: each gives an area, drawn to scale. Then use it across the rest of the page.

Rectangle
m
m
Area
1,000 m²
Dönüm · decare
1.00
Perimeter
130 m
Title deed

Shares on a deed, on the ground

Inherited land in Türkiye is often held in shares, written on the deed as fractions such as 3/16 or 240/960. Enter each owner’s share to see what it comes to on the ground.

For 1 Dönüm · decare Change

Shares drawn as strips across the parcel. On the ground, shares stay undivided until the owners agree or a court divides the land.

Under Law 5403, Article 8, farmland cannot be divided, split into new shares or given more co-owners below the minimum sizes above; the Ministry may set larger minimums, and special rules apply where crops such as tea, hazelnut and olive grow. Since 2020 (Article 8/B), dividing farmland, creating or transferring shares and partitioning an inheritance all need the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry’s permission.

Price

What it costs per dönüm

Listings give a total, a price per m² or a price per dönüm. Enter what you have to get the others, in lira, other money and grams of gold at today’s rates, and compare up to three plots on one scale.

For 1 Dönüm · decare Change

₺
Per dönüm
—
Per m²
—
Per acres
—

  • USD—
  • EUR—
  • GBP—
  • Gold—

Rates of 13 Oct 2026: 1 USD = ₺49.34 · 1 EUR = ₺55.21 · 1 g 24k gold = ₺6,591

Compare plots

Area and asking price of up to three listings. The squares are drawn to one scale; each tag is its price per dönüm.

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Zoning

What may be built: emsal and TAKS

A zoning plan sets two ratios for each building plot: emsal (KAKS) caps the total floor area, TAKS caps the ground the building may cover. Try the numbers from the plot’s zoning status (imar durumu).

For 1 Dönüm · decare Change

When unplanned land is readjusted under Article 18 of the Zoning Law, up to 45% of each parcel can be taken without payment for roads, parks and other public uses.

Floor area allowed (emsal)
—
Ground the building may cover
—
Storeys at full footprint
—
Gross, with areas outside emsal
—
Flats of 100 m²
—

A rough estimate for comparison only. The real limits come from the plot’s zoning status: setbacks, height limits (Hmax), parking and shelter rules. Some areas, such as stairwells and part of the balconies, are outside emsal but capped at 30% of it.

Farm

What this land would grow

Türkiye’s average harvest per dönüm in 2020–2024, from TÜİK crop statistics, multiplied by your land. Real yields swing with water, soil, seed and weather, and with irrigation most of all.

For 1 Dönüm · decare Change

  • Wheat

    295 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 295 kg

    262–322 kg across the years

  • Barley

    249 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 249 kg

    181–281 kg across the years

  • Maize (grain)

    945 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 945 kg

    889–1,025 kg across the years

  • Sunflower

    254 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 254 kg

    226–284 kg across the years

  • Cotton (fibre)

    179 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 179 kg

    163–193 kg across the years

  • Sugar beet

    6,747 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 6.7 t

    6,359–7,098 kg across the years

  • Potatoes

    3,697 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 3.7 t

    3,520–3,824 kg across the years

  • Tomatoes

    7,949 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 7.9 t

    7,589–8,176 kg across the years

  • Watermelons

    4,877 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 4.9 t

    4,719–5,076 kg across the years

  • Hazelnuts

    94 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 94 kg

    87–103 kg across the years

  • Olives

    251 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 251 kg

    148–411 kg across the years

  • Grapes

    981 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 981 kg

    899–1,082 kg across the years

  • Apples

    2,685 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 2.7 t

    2,515–2,818 kg across the years

  • Apricots

    636 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 636 kg

    525–843 kg across the years

  • Cherries

    900 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 900 kg

    833–963 kg across the years

  • Citrus

    3,194 kg per dönüm

    Your land: 3.2 t

    2,647–4,377 kg across the years

Türkiye’s cropland, 218 million dönüm, as fields

Each patch is a crop, sized by the land it covered in 2024. Tap a patch to find its card.

Crop groupDönüm · decare%
Cereals115,440,00053.0%
Fodder26,890,00012.3%
Industrial crops17,220,0007.9%
Pulses8,970,0004.1%
Root crops5,210,0002.4%
Vegetables8,240,0003.8%
Nut orchards15,040,0006.9%
Olive groves9,130,0004.2%
Fruit orchards7,960,0003.7%
Vineyards3,720,0001.7%
  • Wheat alone covers 70.3 million dönüm, 32% of all cropland.
  • Olive harvests swing from 148 to 411 kg per dönüm between years: the trees bear heavily one year and lightly the next.
  • That is about 2.5 dönüm of cropland for every person in Türkiye.
Units

One word, many sizes

The dönüm spread with the Ottoman Empire and outlived it. Most of its descendants settled on exactly 1,000 m², but not all. Here they are to scale, beside the acre and the hectare, and where each is still used.

Are · sotka100 m²Evlek250 m²Old Ottoman dönüm918.7 m²Dönüm · dunam · stremma1,000 m²Cyprus dönüm1,338 m²Iraqi dunam2,500 m²Acre4,047 m²Egyptian feddan4,201 m²Hectare10,000 m²
Every square is drawn to the same scale from one corner; the dashed square is your land.
Türkiye · dönüm · 1,000 m²Syria · دونم · 1,000 m²Serbia · дулум · 1,000 m²Lebanon · دونم · 1,000 m²Jordan · دونم · 1,000 m²Israel · דונם · 1,000 m²Palestine · دونم · 1,000 m²Iraq · دونم · 2,500 m²Greece · στρέμμα · 1,000 m²Egypt · فدان · 4,200.8 m²Northern Cyprus · dönüm · 1,337.8 m²Cyprus · σκάλα · dönüm · 1,337.8 m²Bulgaria · декар · 1,000 m²Albania · dynym · 1,000 m²dönümστρέμμαдекарدونمدونمفدانσκάλα · dönümدونم
  • Metric dönüm: dönüm, dunam, stremma, decare 1,000 m²Türkiye, Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Israel
  • Cyprus dönüm 1,337.8 m²Cyprus, Northern Cyprus
  • Iraqi dunam 2,500 m²Iraq
  • Egyptian feddan, a different unit 4,200.8 m²Egypt
  1. 1432 · A day behind the plough

    The dönüm is first recorded in 1432 as the land a pair of oxen could plough in a day. It was later fixed at 40 × 40 arşın, 1,600 square arşın: 918.7 m² as the land registry converts old deeds.

  2. 1881 · A new dönüm

    The Ottoman state then defined a “new” (cedid) dönüm of 2,500 m². Iraq’s dunam is still exactly that size, while Cyprus kept its own dönüm of 14,400 square feet.

  3. 1945 · A thousand square metres

    Türkiye made the metric system law in 1931, in force from 1933, and the 1945 land-reform law fixed the rest: “a dönüm is a thousand square metres”. Greece’s stremma, Bulgaria’s decare and the dunam of the Levant are the same 1,000 m².

Questions

Questions about the dönüm

How many square metres is one dönüm?

Exactly 1,000 m², the same as a decare. Ten dönüm make a hectare, and one dönüm is about 0.247 acres or 10,764 square feet. The size has been fixed in Turkish law since 1945 (Law 4753, Article 5: “a dönüm is a thousand square metres”).

Is a dönüm the same as a decare (dekar)?

Yes: both are 1,000 m². “Dekar” is the metric name that statistics use (TÜİK reports sown areas and yields per decare), while “dönüm” is the everyday word in the field and in listings.

How big is an evlek?

An evlek is a quarter of a dönüm: 250 m² today. In old records it was a quarter of the old dönüm, about 229.7 m², and in Cyprus an evlek is 3,600 sq ft, about 334.5 m².

How many dönüm are in a hectare and in an acre?

A hectare is 10 dönüm (10,000 m²). An acre is 4,046.86 m², about 4.05 dönüm, so one dönüm is about 0.247 acres.

What was the old Ottoman dönüm, and how do I read an old deed?

The old (atik) dönüm was 40 × 40 arşın, or 1,600 square arşın; the land registry’s own conversion table puts it at 918.672 m². Records from before the metric era may give areas in dönüm, evlek, arşın or zira, or in local units such as the 2,000 m² dönüm of Afyon, so a “dönüm” on an old deed is not necessarily 1,000 m². Modern deeds give the area in square metres.

How do I work out the area of an irregular field?

Split it into triangles. Measure the four sides and one diagonal and add the two triangles (Heron’s formula), or take the corner coordinates from a survey plan. The old rule of multiplying the averages of opposite sides always overstates a slanted field. The measuring bench above does all of this, and can also walk the corners with your phone’s GPS.

Can farmland be divided or sold in shares?

Only above minimum sizes. Under Law 5403, farmland cannot be divided, split into new shares or given more co-owners below 2 hectares (20 dönüm) for fields, marginal and special-crop land, 0.5 ha (5 dönüm) for orchards and vineyards, and 0.3 ha (3 dönüm) for greenhouses. Since 2020, dividing farmland, creating or transferring shares and partitioning inheritances need the Ministry of Agriculture’s permission, and since June 2026 cooperatives other than agricultural ones can no longer acquire farmland.

Can foreigners buy land in Türkiye?

Citizens of the countries the President lists can. One person may hold up to 30 hectares (300 dönüm) across the country, a limit the President may double, and foreigners together may hold no more than 10% of a district’s private land. A foreign buyer of land without a building must submit a development project to the relevant ministry within two years (Land Registry Law, Article 35).

What do emsal (KAKS) and TAKS mean?

Both are ratios to the net plot area. Emsal, or KAKS, is the floor area of all storeys divided by the plot area; TAKS is the building’s footprint divided by the plot area. On a 1,000 m² plot, emsal 1.50 allows 1,500 m² of floors and TAKS 0.35 lets the building cover 350 m². Areas outside emsal, such as stairwells and parts of balconies, may add at most 30% (Planned Areas Zoning Regulation, Articles 4 and 5).

How many ares, square feet or feddans is a dönüm?

One dönüm is 10 ares (the Russian sotka is an are of 100 m²), 10,763.9 sq ft and about 0.238 Egyptian feddans. A feddan is 4,200.83 m², about 4.2 dönüm, divided into 24 qirats of about 175 m².

Sources

Where the numbers come from

Unit sizes are fixed legal definitions; the old dönüm follows the land registry’s own conversion table. Crop yields are five-year averages of TÜİK’s figures as published by Eurostat. Prices use TCMB’s rates and the gold page’s market quotes. Every area is worked out in your browser, and nothing you type, measure or paste leaves your device. This page is not a survey, a valuation or legal advice.