diff --git a/mingw-w64-octave/PKGBUILD b/mingw-w64-octave/PKGBUILD
index 71d03ba488..a712b5f163 100644
--- a/mingw-w64-octave/PKGBUILD
+++ b/mingw-w64-octave/PKGBUILD
@@ -57,6 +57,10 @@ build() {
   mkdir -p build-${MSYSTEM}
   cd build-${MSYSTEM}
 
+  # The configure step sometimes hangs for MINGW32 for currently unknown reasons.
+  # Add a timeout of 30 minutes (well over what should be needed) to unblock
+  # the build system in that case.
+  timeout 30m \
   ../${_realname}-${pkgver}/configure \
     --host=${MINGW_CHOST} \
     --target=${MINGW_CHOST} \