Bizarre property is just 55 inches wide and up for sale

A very unusual property has hit the market. From the front it looks like a perfectly normal Spanish revival home, on a quiet street in Seattle. However, step inside and you'll discover its bizarre secret - it's a tiny triangular building, and at its narrowest point, it's only 55 inches wide.

The property boasts a living room, bedroom, bathroom and kitchen - spread across the plot to make it look like a normal house from the front.

Behind the frontage, the triangle widens to 15 feet wide at one end, and narrows to a tiny point at the other.

It's in a desirable neighbourhood, and is in high demand, which means it's on the market for $519,900. The online estate agent, Redfin, says it's likely to sell in the next four days.

Why?

It's not certain exactly why the house such a bizarre shape. The listing calls it a 'piece of Seattle history' in reference to the fact it is known as the Montlake Spite House. Spite houses are built - as the name suggests - out of spite.

They tend to occur when someone only owns a small piece of land, but wants to use it to prove a point or get their own back on someone.

One of the most famous examples is Hollensbury Spite House in Alexandra, Virginia. It's 7 feet wide and 25 feet long and was built in 1830 by the owner of one of the neighbouring houses. He didn't need the extra room. The only reason he decided to built it was to stop wagons going down the alley.

There's also a tiny house in Boston - which is just 10 and a half feet wide. It was built just after the Civil War, and locals claim it was built by a soldier returning from the war. He owned the land with his brother, and while he was away fighting, his brother built a large home on the rest of the land. The second brother came home and built a mini house on the rest of it, to make a point.

This particular Spite House was built in 1925, and theories abound as to why. There's the possibility that neighbours fell out, and one of them built on the parcel of land to show his neighbour it was worth more than he thought.

There's also a theory that a couple divorced, and the land was split, giving the wife the front yard. She then decided to build in it and block the view from her ex-husband's house.

And there's a local story that the landowner gave permission for someone to build on the plot, provided they left room for a second property to be built. They then went travelling, and returned to find only a sliver of land had been left for the second property - so they built on that.