diff --git a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
index 7e2efc8168..385d0c1526 100644
--- a/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
+++ b/src/qemu/qemu_domain.c
@@ -5222,10 +5222,10 @@ qemuDomainControllerDefPostParse(virDomainControllerDef *cont,
             return -1;
         }
         if (cont->model == VIR_DOMAIN_CONTROLLER_MODEL_PCIE_EXPANDER_BUS &&
-            !qemuDomainIsQ35(def)) {
+            !(qemuDomainIsQ35(def) || qemuDomainIsARMVirt(def))) {
             virReportError(VIR_ERR_CONFIG_UNSUPPORTED, "%s",
-                           _("pcie-expander-bus controllers are only supported "
-                             "on q35-based machinetypes"));
+                           _("pcie-expander-bus controllers are not supported "
+                             "with this machine type"));
             return -1;
         }
 
diff --git a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/pcie-expander-bus-bad-machine.err b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/pcie-expander-bus-bad-machine.err
index 9b58aaddd6..06967dbbcd 100644
--- a/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/pcie-expander-bus-bad-machine.err
+++ b/tests/qemuxml2argvdata/pcie-expander-bus-bad-machine.err
@@ -1 +1 @@
-unsupported configuration: pcie-expander-bus controllers are only supported on q35-based machinetypes
+unsupported configuration: pcie-expander-bus controllers are not supported with this machine type