pyrenode3 doesn't expand '~' to '/home/$USER'

Setting RENODE_ROOT to my home area using tilde seems to cause pyrenode3 to barf with:

CRITICAL:root:Can't determine Renode directory using the '~/git/renode/output/bin/Release' pattern. Please specify its path (relative to ~/git/renode) in the PYRENODE_BUILD_OUTPUT variable.