The Usual Place Podcast
Did the Budget 2026 PARF rebate cuts kill car ownership aspirations?
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Watch The Usual Place at 12pm SGT/HKT and share your thoughts on our YouTube channel.
Owning a car in Singapore got more expensive after Budget 2026 introduced changes to the preferential additional registration fee (PARF) rebate
The PARF rebate was an incentive of sorts.
A car owner would get back some money on the tax paid when the car was bought, but only if it was deregistered before the end of the 10-year COE lifespan. The earlier the car was deregistered, the more money the owner would get back.
Well, that was until PM Wong announced in his Budget speech on Feb 12 that the PARF rebate will be lowered by 45 percentage points. The maximum rebate a car owner can expect to receive will be halved from $60,000 to $30,000.
The changes took effect from the last COE bidding exercise, which closed on Feb 20.
These cars have lost some value because they will have a lower payout than cars not affected by the change.
What should the game plan be, then, for those still looking to buy a car after this announcement? How does this development affect car brands and the second-hand market?
In this episode of The Usual Place, ST’s senior transport correspondent Lee Nian Tjoe and veteran automotive consultant Say Kwee Neng share their thoughts.
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