International Real Estate Directory and International Property Listings

Int'l Paradise

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Maps and Measures

Web intlparadise.com

Maps

Here are a few sites provide mapping resources:

Multimap: This is an excellent resource for street maps in almost any country. It even includes rural areas. http://www.multimap.com

Google Earth: This one blows me away. It can zoom in and give incredible satellite images of anyplace on earth. What's more it is 3D so you can see mountains and views from a particular property. It also includes street maps. You must download free software for it to work but it is worth the effort. http://earth.google.com

Conversion Units

Buying properties in other countries can be confusing. There are a number of different measures used in different countries and regions. For comparisons keep in mind that in many U.S. cities a normal sized single house lot is about 50' by 100' making it 5,000 square feet or about 464 square meters. Here is a list of at least some of those measures. Before making any purchase, verify these conversions with a local source such as a surveyor or the title registry.

Are or Area: 100 square meters or 10 by 10 meters.
Acre: Equals 43,560 square feet, 4,840 square yards or 3,344.5 square meters. There are 640 acres in a square mile. An acre is 0.4047 hectares.
Foot: Equals 0.3048 meters and 1 sq. foot is 0.0929 sq. meters
Hectare or ha: Equals 2.471 acres or 10,000 square meters or 100 Ares or 107,639 square feet, 11,959.9 square yards.
Manzana: Equals 1.73 acres or 7,000 sq. meters or 10,000 sq. varas.
Meter: approximately 1.093 yards, 3.280 feet. A square meter is approximately 10.76 square feet, or approximately 1.196 square yards.
Tarea: 900 square varas, or 30 by 30 varas, Approximately 25 meters x 25 meters or 625 meters. That is approximately 751 square yards, or .0628 hectares or .155 acres.
Vara: in Latin America is usually about 33-34 inches. In Spain it is 32.9 inches or 83.587 centimeters. In Portugal it is 43.3. inches or 110 cm. 1 square vara equals 0.7 square meters.

Note that the exact size of some measures such as "varas" can vary between countries. Also note that in much of Latin America decimals are often denoted with a comma. For example 123.56 will be denoted as 123,56.

Conversion Links

Onlineconversion.com: An excellent resource including measures specific to countries

http://www.onlineconversion.com/area.htm

Unitcoversion.org Area Converter: online conversions of different units of measure

http://www.unitconversion.org/unit_converter/area.html

Area Converter in Spanish, including many measures particular to Latin America

http://www.zonu.com/referencia/conversionmedidas.htm

Area Codes and How to Dial International Numbers

Time and Date.com http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/dialing.html

World Time

Time and Date.com http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/full.html