diff --git a/easybuild/tools/systemtools.py b/easybuild/tools/systemtools.py
index 6d384ad573..dd9ac39c8a 100644
--- a/easybuild/tools/systemtools.py
+++ b/easybuild/tools/systemtools.py
@@ -1240,14 +1240,19 @@ def get_default_parallelism():
             det_parallelism._default_parallelism = par
         return par
 
+    defaultpar = get_default_parallelism()
     if par is None:
-        par = get_default_parallelism()
+        par = defaultpar
     else:
         try:
             par = int(par)
         except ValueError as err:
             raise EasyBuildError("Specified level of parallelism '%s' is not an integer value: %s", par, err)
 
+    if defaultpar < par:
+        _log.info("Reducing parallelism from %s to %s", par, defaultpar)
+        par = defaultpar
+
     if maxpar is not None and maxpar < par:
         if maxpar is False:
             maxpar = 1