diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 0c4c77cf8c..c32db06e34 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -3187,7 +3187,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendProps(virJSONValuePtr *backendProps,
                              "with this QEMU binary"));
             return -1;
         }
-        if (virJSONValueObjectAdd(props, "s:pmem", "on", NULL) < 0)
+        if (virJSONValueObjectAdd(props, "b:pmem", true, NULL) < 0)
             return -1;
     }
 
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/memory-hotplug-nvdimm-pmem.x86_64-latest.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/memory-hotplug-nvdimm-pmem.x86_64-latest.args
index 5dfba9b50a..00a78baa92 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/memory-hotplug-nvdimm-pmem.x86_64-latest.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/memory-hotplug-nvdimm-pmem.x86_64-latest.args
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ file=/tmp/lib/domain--1-QEMUGuest1/master-key.aes \
 -smp 2,sockets=2,dies=1,cores=1,threads=1 \
 -numa node,nodeid=0,cpus=0-1,mem=214 \
 -object memory-backend-file,id=memnvdimm0,prealloc=yes,mem-path=/tmp/nvdimm,\
-share=no,size=536870912,pmem=on \
+share=no,size=536870912,pmem=yes \
 -device nvdimm,node=0,memdev=memnvdimm0,id=nvdimm0,slot=0 \
 -uuid c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809 \
 -display none \