diff --git a/tests/avocado/avocado_qemu/__init__.py b/tests/avocado/avocado_qemu/__init__.py
index ed4853c805..9d17a287cf 100644
--- a/tests/avocado/avocado_qemu/__init__.py
+++ b/tests/avocado/avocado_qemu/__init__.py
@@ -227,6 +227,10 @@ def exec_command_and_wait_for_pattern(test, command,
     _console_interaction(test, success_message, failure_message, command + '\r')
 
 class QemuBaseTest(avocado.Test):
+
+    # default timeout for all tests, can be overridden
+    timeout = 900
+
     def _get_unique_tag_val(self, tag_name):
         """
         Gets a tag value, if unique for a key
@@ -512,7 +516,6 @@ class LinuxTest(LinuxSSHMixIn, QemuSystemTest):
     to start with than the more vanilla `QemuSystemTest` class.
     """
 
-    timeout = 900
     distro = None
     username = 'root'
     password = 'password'