Do all countries list apartments in square meters?

Most do — the US, UK, and Canada are the main exceptions where square feet remain standard for real estate. Continental Europe, Latin America, most of Asia, and Australia all use square meters.

How do I convert an apartment listing from m² to ft²?

Multiply the square-meter figure by 10.7639 (or divide by 0.09290304 for the exact value). A 90 m² apartment is about 969 ft².

How do I convert from ft² to m²?

Multiply the square-foot figure by 0.09290304 (or divide by 10.7639). A 1,200 ft² apartment is about 111.5 m².

Why do listing sizes sometimes not match what the space feels like?

Some markets include balconies, terraces, or shared hallway space in the quoted area (common in parts of Europe and Asia), while others quote strictly interior floor area only. Always check what the number includes, independent of which unit it's in.

Guide

Comparing apartment listings: sq ft vs m² sizes, fairly

A '90' listing means something completely different in Berlin than it does in Chicago — here's how to compare fairly.

By Buğra SözeriPublished September 25, 2026

If you've ever compared an apartment listing in New York to one in Amsterdam, you've hit the same wall: one says 850 sq ft, the other says 65 m² — and neither number means anything to you until you convert it into a unit you actually have a feel for. Since square feet and square meters aren't simply scaled versions of each other (the conversion factor is exact but not round), you can't eyeball it; you need the real math.

The exact conversion factors

Both directions come from the same source: 1 foot is exactly 0.3048 meters, so 1 square foot is exactly 0.09290304 m². Inverting that gives 1 square meter as exactly 10.76391041671 ft², usually rounded to 10.7639. These figures trace back to the 1959 international yard and pound agreement, documented in NIST Handbook 44.

Direction	Multiply by
Square feet → square meters	0.09290304
Square meters → square feet	10.7639

Worked example: comparing two listings

Say you're deciding between an 850 ft² one-bedroom in Chicago and a 65 m² one-bedroom in Amsterdam. Converting the Amsterdam listing:

65 m² × 10.7639 = 699.65 ft²

So the Chicago unit is actually about 150 ft² larger than the Amsterdam one, even though “850” and “65” look nothing alike at first glance. Without converting, most people assume the bigger raw number (“850”) is obviously bigger — which happens to be true here, but only because you did the math, not because the numbers were comparable to begin with.

What the number does and doesn't include

Unit conversion only solves half the problem. Listing conventions vary by market independently of which unit is used: some countries measure strictly interior floor area (excluding walls), others include balconies or a share of common stairwells, and US listings sometimes include garage or basement space that isn't heated living area. According to Eurostat housing statistics, EU dwelling-size reporting standards also differ by country, so always check what's included before assuming a converted figure is a true apples-to-apples comparison — see also our area converters for related unit pairs like acres and hectares if the listing includes land size too.

A rough mental shortcut for browsing

For quick browsing (not a lease decision), divide square feet by 10 and add another 10% back — 850 ft² ÷ 10 = 85, minus roughly 10% ≈ 79 m², close to the exact 78.97 m². Going the other way, multiply square meters by 10 and take off about 7% — 65 m² × 10 = 650, minus 7% ≈ 605, versus the true 699.65, which shows the shortcut degrades faster in this direction. Use the exact factor whenever the decision matters.

Frequently asked questions

Do all countries list apartments in square meters?: Most do — the US, UK, and Canada are the main exceptions where square feet remain standard for real estate. Continental Europe, Latin America, most of Asia, and Australia all use square meters.
How do I convert an apartment listing from m² to ft²?: Multiply the square-meter figure by 10.7639 (or divide by 0.09290304 for the exact value). A 90 m² apartment is about 969 ft².
How do I convert from ft² to m²?: Multiply the square-foot figure by 0.09290304 (or divide by 10.7639). A 1,200 ft² apartment is about 111.5 m².
Why do listing sizes sometimes not match what the space feels like?: Some markets include balconies, terraces, or shared hallway space in the quoted area (common in parts of Europe and Asia), while others quote strictly interior floor area only. Always check what the number includes, independent of which unit it's in.

Sources & references

Authoritative references cited by this piece. Verified by Buğra Sözeri on the dates shown and re-checked at every deploy.

NIST Handbook 44, Appendix C — General Tables of Units of Measurement — Basis for the exact foot-to-meter and derived square-foot-to-square-meter factors(as of 2026-09-25)
Eurostat — Housing statistics — EU-wide data on typical dwelling size, quoted in square meters as the standard regional unit(as of 2026-09-25)
US Census Bureau — Highlights of Annual 2023 Characteristics of New Housing — US median new single-family home size, quoted in square feet(as of 2026-09-25)