diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
index 964960cfaa..d822533ccb 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_command.c
@@ -3896,8 +3896,7 @@ qemuBuildMemoryBackendProps(virJSONValue **backendProps,
     /* If mode is "restrictive", we should only use cgroups setting allowed memory
      * nodes, and skip passing the host-nodes and policy parameters to QEMU command
      * line which means we will use system default memory policy. */
-    if (!systemMemory && nodemask &&
-        mode != VIR_DOMAIN_NUMATUNE_MEM_RESTRICTIVE) {
+    if (nodemask && mode != VIR_DOMAIN_NUMATUNE_MEM_RESTRICTIVE) {
         if (!virNumaNodesetIsAvailable(nodemask))
             return -1;
         if (virJSONValueObjectAdd(&props,
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/numatune-system-memory.x86_64-latest.args b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/numatune-system-memory.x86_64-latest.args
index 2c1180b77e..fd93abe3eb 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/numatune-system-memory.x86_64-latest.args
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/numatune-system-memory.x86_64-latest.args
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ XDG_CONFIG_HOME=/tmp/lib/domain--1-QEMUGuest1/.config \
 -accel tcg \
 -cpu qemu64 \
 -m 214 \
--object '{"qom-type":"memory-backend-ram","id":"pc.ram","size":224395264}' \
+-object '{"qom-type":"memory-backend-ram","id":"pc.ram","size":224395264,"host-nodes":[0],"policy":"bind"}' \
 -overcommit mem-lock=off \
 -smp 2,sockets=2,cores=1,threads=1 \
 -uuid c7a5fdbd-edaf-9455-926a-d65c16db1809 \