diff --git a/hw/ppc/spapr_cpu_core.c b/hw/ppc/spapr_cpu_core.c
index 710078e9f7..5aa1ed474a 100644
--- a/hw/ppc/spapr_cpu_core.c
+++ b/hw/ppc/spapr_cpu_core.c
@@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ static PowerPCCPU *spapr_create_vcpu(SpaprCpuCore *sc, int i, Error **errp)
      * All CPUs start halted. CPU0 is unhalted from the machine level reset code
      * and the rest are explicitly started up by the guest using an RTAS call.
      */
-    cs->start_powered_off = true;
+    qdev_prop_set_bit(DEVICE(obj), "start-powered-off", true);
     cs->cpu_index = cc->core_id + i;
     if (!spapr_set_vcpu_id(cpu, cs->cpu_index, errp)) {
         return NULL;