BEIJING - When real estate agencies in this city sell a house that has already been lived in, they will be able to charge commission fees amounting to no more than 2 percent of the house's price, according to a new regulation.

Beijing's municipal commission of development and reform made an announcement on Sunday about the new regulation, which will come into effect after Wednesday. From then on, real estate brokers won't be able to charge transaction fees amounting to more than 2 percent of the price of second-hand houses that go for less than 5 million yuan ($783,500). That will be the first time that rate - which is now set at 2.5 percent - has been reduced in 14 years.

The commission also kept caps in place on three other types of fees that used to be charged at whatever rate brokers wanted. Those include fees charged for helping buyers obtain loans or officially register real estate.

The new policy promises to save buyers a lot of money. A person wanting to have a 3-million-yuan apartment, for instance, could avoid paying as much as 20,000 yuan in real estate fees.    

"The purpose for the cut in these fees is to further lighten the burden that now weighs on potential house buyers and to better regulate what brokers charge," the commission said. "Customers can inform the commission of any violation."

The new rule comes as the market in Beijing for second-hand houses - houses that have already been lived in - continues to be slow.

On Feb 16, the municipal government put a regulation into effect prohibiting the purchase of homes by Beijing families that already own two or more apartments and by those that have no Beijing hukou (permanent residency permit) and have at least one apartment in the city.

In the first four months of 2011, after that regulation went into effect, the number of houses sold decreased by 30 percent from what it had been the year before, according to official figures.

Experts said they don't think the latest policy is meant as a stimulus.

"The policy is not intended to prop up the housing market as commissions only account for a small proportion of a house's total price," Chen Zhi, deputy secretary-general of the Beijing Real Estate Association, was quoted by Beijing Times as saying.

Meanwhile, many brokers of second-hand houses said they were optimistic about the new policy, saying it will attract more buyers to the market.

"I expect to see a fairly good increase in the number of sales, although it won't be remarkable," said Zhang Dan, a second-hand real estate broker with a Beijing outlet of Centaline Group, a provider of real estate services in China.

Zhang said she doubts the policy will affect the company's profits.

The new policy will add to the pressure felt by small real estate agencies that are already struggling to stay in business in the market for second-hand housing, said an insider at the Beijing Homelink Real Estate Co.