SINGAPORE - The number of certificates of entitlement (COEs) available for car buyers and sellers will fall again in the next three months starting from May, with a 10.6 per cent drop from the current quota.

In its quarterly announcement on Thursday (April 15), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said there will be an average of 3,792 car COEs per month for the period of May to July, down from 4,241 per month between February and this month.

This follows a 12.8 per cent fall from the previous quota period between November and January, when there were 4,865 car COEs per month.

This figure includes COEs in Category A, which is for cars up to 1,600cc and 130bhp; Category B, which is for cars above 1,600cc or 130bhp; and the Open category, which can be used for any vehicle type except motorcycles but which ends up mostly for bigger cars.

The number of COEs for commercial vehicles will also drop sharply for the second quarter in a row. There will be 314 COEs available for goods vehicles and buses per month, a 38.6 per cent decrease from the 511 COEs available per month currently.

Meanwhile, the supply of motorcycle COEs continues to grow. There will be 1,228 COEs a month for the category in the next quarter, compared with 1,083 a month now.

In all, there will be 5,334 COEs available per month in the next three months compared with 5,835 available currently.

LTA said there are 2,890 remaining COEs out of an accumulated quota of 19,490 from when COE bidding was suspended from April to June last year due to Covid-19. These accumulated COEs were to be returned to the market over a one-year period from July last year to June this year.

On Thursday, LTA said it will redistribute the remaining COEs over the next three months instead of just May and June so that the redistribution is more even.

At the last COE bidding exercise, prices ended mostly higher due to several factors, including expectations of a cut in the quota.

The COE quota is based on various factors such as the number of vehicles deregistered, changes in the taxi population and the replacement of commercial vehicles under the Early Turnover Scheme.

On April 7, premiums for both Category A and Category B hit their highest levels since late-2017, ending at $45,600 and $52,309 respectively.

The price for Open COEs finished at a two-year high of $52,200.