COE quota rises 6.4% to 18,232 for May to July
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In all, 18,232 certificates will be available for bidding from May to July 2025.
ST PHOTO: BRIAN TEO
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SINGAPORE – There will be 1,099 – or 6.4 per cent – more certificates of entitlement (COEs) available for tender from May to July, compared with the February to April period.
In total, 18,232 certificates will be available for bidding, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on April 16. This is up from the 17,133 COEs that were available from February to April.
The increase in quota from May to July is partly due to vehicle deregistrations during the period from April 2024 to March 2025 and provisions for 0.25 per cent yearly growth in commercial vehicle (Category C) COEs based on the category’s vehicle population as at Dec 31, 2024.
It also consists of adjustments for changes in the taxi population, expired COEs, commercial vehicles undergoing the Early Turnover Scheme, redistribution from guaranteed deregistrations for Category A (smaller cars), Category B (larger cars) and Category D (motorcycles) COEs, as well as the injection of additional COEs.
This will be the second quota period in which LTA will be injecting additional COEs, on top of those brought forward from guaranteed deregistrations in the next projected supply peak.
These quota increases are part of LTA’s move to inject up to 20,000 additional COEs progressively over the next few years
At present, the number of certificates available for bidding is mainly determined by the number of vehicles taken off the road in the previous four quarters.
In the upcoming quota period, the number of COEs brought forward and the additional certificates injected will total 5,155 across the car and motorcycle categories.
Category A COEs, meant for smaller and less powerful cars and electric vehicles (EVs), will increase by 10 per cent from 6,828 in the February to April period to 7,511 from May to July.
The 4,689 Category B COEs – which are used to register larger and more powerful cars and EVs – will be 5.02 per cent more than the 4,465 available from February to April.
The Open category (Category E) COE supply will rise by 1.85 per cent from 1,187 to 1,209. Category E COEs can be used to register any vehicle type except motorcycles but are almost always used for larger cars and EVs.
The supply of COEs for commercial vehicles will be 1,625 – 4.97 per cent more than the 1,548 pieces available in the preceding period.
The motorcycle COE supply will increase to 3,198, from 3,105 – a 3 per cent increase.
LTA’s announcement on April 16 comes about 2½ weeks before the biannual car show The Car Expo 2025, which will be held on May 3 and 4.
A COE gives one the right to own a vehicle in Singapore.
Mr Ng Choon Wee, commercial director of Hyundai distributor Komoco Motors, said the increase in COE quota may not necessarily result in lower COE premiums, especially for Category A cars.
Citing numbers from the latest tender exercise on April 9,
The premium for a Category A COE increased by 3.4 per cent, from $94,502 in the tender on March 19
But Mr Neo Nam Heng, adviser to the Automobile Importer and Exporter Association and chairman of diversified motor group Prime, was “surprised” to see an increase of 10 per cent in the quota for Category A COEs.
He said this quota increase is likely to ease price hikes for Category A COEs, but the increases for COEs in other categories are not significant enough to impact premiums.
Mr Neo thinks the long-term impact on COE premiums is difficult to predict, as the number of additional certificates that will be injected in the upcoming rounds is not determined yet.
Mr Anthony Teo, managing director of Sime Motors Vantage Automotive, said the quota increase will ease market pressures by meeting the high demand for certificates, and may stabilise prices or even “hopefully” push premiums down.
Noting that buyers of Category B certificates tend to have greater spending power compared with those for Category A COEs, he added that the smaller quota increase is “still decent”.
He is, however, still waiting to see if the upward trend in COE quotas will continue for the next few quarters.
