More COEs may drive car prices down

Potential buyers at the Nissan showroom in Ubi Road on May 10, 2014. PHOTO: ST FILE

There will be more certificates of entitlement (COE) in the coming months and this is expected to drive vehicle prices down further.

There will be 9,634 COEs a month, on average, from May to July. This is a 15 per cent increase from the previous three-month quota period.

Car COE numbers will rise by 14 per cent to 8,384 a month.

But the single biggest expansion will be in the commercial vehicle category, which goes up by 40.7 per cent to 456 a month.

The growth in COE supply, fuelled by the scrapping of old vehicles bought during the last supply bonanza about a decade ago, is expected to continue for another 18 months or so.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on April 16, 2016, with the headline More COEs may drive car prices down. Subscribe