diff --git a/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.c b/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.c
index 78bc14fc85..2990f8de5d 100644
--- a/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.c
+++ b/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.c
@@ -312,6 +312,8 @@ static void virtio_balloon_set_config(VirtIODevice *vdev,
 
 static uint64_t virtio_balloon_get_features(VirtIODevice *vdev, uint64_t f)
 {
+    VirtIOBalloon *dev = VIRTIO_BALLOON(vdev);
+    f |= dev->host_features;
     virtio_add_feature(&f, VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_STATS_VQ);
     return f;
 }
@@ -423,6 +425,8 @@ static void virtio_balloon_instance_init(Object *obj)
 }
 
 static Property virtio_balloon_properties[] = {
+    DEFINE_PROP_BIT("deflate-on-oom", VirtIOBalloon, host_features,
+                    VIRTIO_BALLOON_F_DEFLATE_ON_OOM, false),
     DEFINE_PROP_END_OF_LIST(),
 };
 
diff --git a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.h b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.h
index 346a9fdb7d..09c2ce4dcd 100644
--- a/include/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.h
+++ b/include/hw/virtio/virtio-balloon.h
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ typedef struct VirtIOBalloon {
     QEMUTimer *stats_timer;
     int64_t stats_last_update;
     int64_t stats_poll_interval;
+    uint32_t host_features;
 } VirtIOBalloon;
 
 #endif