Want the smallest house in Brussels? It’s for sale

Cozy might be the best word to describe the smallest house in Brussels, which is about to go up for auction.

The centuries-old former furniture workshop and crêperie a stone's throw from the Belgian capital's picturesque central square is just nine feet wide and has a ground floor just under six feet wide.

"There's a lot of interest and there are also a lot of tourists who want to see it," said Claude Rotsart de Hertaing, a Brussels pensioner who works part time showing prospective buyers around houses.

The dilapidated five-floor Belgian townhouse, just off the central Grand Place, has "La plus petite maison de Bruxelles" (The smallest house in Brussels) written across a faded wooden sign above the entrance.

However, it is not Europe's narrowest, which tourist officials in Slovakia believe could be a four-foot wide house in its capital Bratislava.

The Brussels house, squeezed between a pizzeria and a souvenir shop, has floors of about 170 square feet each, apart from the ground floor, which is even tighter because of a pathway running to a courtyard down the side.

On one floor it has a potentially inviting fireplace, but you might singe your knees if you sat facing it on an armchair.

The house will be auctioned on Feb. 6, starting at a price of €146,200 (about $195,000).