COE prices decline in final bidding of 2023

SINGAPORE: For the final tender of the year held on Wednesday (Dec 20), the prices for the certificate of entitlement (COE) fell across the board.

Premiums for the five category types have fallen from the heights observed earlier in the year when COEs for vehicles in Category B breached the S$150,000 mark.

In the most recent tender, the price for Category B COEs saw the biggest drop of 15.4 per cent from two weeks ago when the previous bidding was held.

It closed at S$110,001 from the previous premium of S$130,100. Category B vehicles include cars above 1600cc or 130bhp and electric vehicles EVs with more than 110kW.

Read also: Jamus Lim explains why high COE prices are not just a concern for ‘elites’

For lighter Category A vehicles, the most recent COE price was down by S$3,020 and ended at S$85,000. Category C goods vehicles and busses saw a smaller drop of S$1,578, landing at S$69,423.

Premiums for motorcycles, or Category D, decreased by S$856, ending at S$9,002. In contrast, for the open Category E, which excludes motorcycles, there was a significant drop of S$15,000, and the tender ended at S$$118,388.

Motorist.sg tracked the price trend for COEs, the document allowing someone to own a vehicle in Singapore for 10 years, from Dec 2022 to the present. The chart below shows how prices peaked in October.

In October, Reuters said the reason for the surge in the price of a COE, which was implemented to control the number of cars in land-scarce Singapore, was a post-Covid-19 pandemic boom in car ownership.

A COE costs four times as much as it did in 2020, at the height of lockdowns that saw very little activity in the city-state. During that time, a COE could be obtained for as little as S$30,000.

“The skyrocketing price puts cars firmly out of reach of most middle-class Singaporeans, putting a dent in what sociologist Tan Ern Ser said was the ‘Singapore Dream’ of upward social mobility – having cash, a condominium and a car,” noted Reuters’  Xinghui Kok on Oct 4, noting that the median yearly household salary is S$121,188.

As noted in many articles, Singapore is the most expensive city in the world to own a car. A Reuters article even pointed out that the bid for a COE in Singapore costs as much as four Toyota Camry Hybrids in the United States.

By November, however, the first COE bidding for the month saw a considerable drop in prices, with the COE prices of Category B vehicles decreasing by S$40,000.

Read also: First COE bidding for Nov 2023: Category B down by S$40K /TISG