diff --git a/configure.ac b/configure.ac
index db268ab98321477278f0b8fc0874f3c86e764a26..600317dd04a9ccd9d2b66a1d542391fe3581961d 100644
--- a/configure.ac
+++ b/configure.ac
@@ -438,7 +438,7 @@ then
     then
         AC_MSG_NOTICE([Making in-tree mingw tree])
         rm -rf inplace/mingw
-        mkdir inplace
+        test -d inplace || mkdir inplace
         mkdir inplace/mingw
         (
             cd inplace/mingw &&