diff --git a/eb_hooks.py b/eb_hooks.py
index f65c3ec7..25b55b81 100644
--- a/eb_hooks.py
+++ b/eb_hooks.py
@@ -128,15 +128,10 @@ def post_ready_hook(self, *args, **kwargs):
     Post-ready hook: limit parallellism for selected builds based on software name and CPU target.
                      parallelism needs to be limited because some builds require a lot of memory per used core.
     """
-    # 'parallel' (EB4) or 'max_parallel' (EB5) easyconfig parameter is set via EasyBlock.set_parallel in ready step
-    # based on available cores.
-
-    # Check whether we have EasyBuild 4 or 5
-    parallel_param = 'parallel'
-    if EASYBUILD_VERSION >= '5':
-        parallel_param = 'max_parallel'
-    # get current parallelism setting
-    parallel = self.cfg[parallel_param]
+    # 'parallel' easyconfig parameter (EB4) or the parallel property (EB5) is set via EasyBlock.set_parallel
+    # in ready step based on available cores
+    parallel = getattr(self, 'parallel', self.cfg['parallel'])
+    
     if parallel == 1:
         return  # no need to limit if already using 1 core
 
@@ -167,7 +162,10 @@ def post_ready_hook(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
     # apply the limit if it's different from current
     if new_parallel != parallel:
-        self.cfg[parallel_param] = new_parallel
+        if EASYBUILD_VERSION >= '5':
+            self.cfg.parallel = new_parallel
+        else:
+            self.cfg['parallel'] = new_parallel
         msg = "limiting parallelism to %s (was %s) for %s on %s to avoid out-of-memory failures during building/testing"
         print_msg(msg % (new_parallel, parallel, self.name, cpu_target), log=self.log)