HDB family with Mercedes E200, Audi A4, Alfa Romeo, Toyota MR; 2,000 such homes own at least 3 cars
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As at Sept 30, 274,000 HDB households and 207,000 non-HDB households own at least one car.
ST PHOTO: KUA CHEE SIONG
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- 2,000 HDB households in Singapore own at least three cars, revealed Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow in response to a parliamentary question.
- High car ownership in HDB households is driven by convenience for work, family needs and individual lifestyles, despite public transport options.
- An expert believes this trend will remain limited due to policies, rising costs and public transport improvements.
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SINGAPORE – Ms Ng C.C., 52, and her family, who live in a Housing Board flat in Jurong West, have four cars registered to their name.
The regional finance director lives with her boyfriend, a dental surgeon, and they each have a car, because of their different work schedules.
Living with them are her younger brother, who has two cars, and his secondary school-going son.
They are among the 2,000 HDB households that owned at least three cars as at Sept 30. In comparison, 9,000 non-HDB households owned at least three cars.
As at Sept 30, 274,000 HDB households and 207,000 non-HDB households own at least one car, while 20,000 HDB households and 46,000 non-HDB households own at least two cars, data provided by Acting Transport Minister Jeffrey Siow showed.
The figures were released by Mr Siow on Nov 4 in response to a question from Pioneer MP Patrick Tay, who had requested a breakdown of car ownership by household type.
Mr Tay had asked for the number of HDB and non-HDB households – such as those in landed properties and condominiums – that own at least one, two or three cars.
Ms Ng, who drives an Audi A4, said: “Having my own car is convenient, as I don’t have to plan my activities around when others in the family can give me a ride.”
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Her brother, a 50-year-old business owner, has two cars – an Alfa Romeo Giulia and a Toyota MR2.
Ms Ng and her brother take turns to ferry her nephew between his school in Dover and their home, as there is no direct bus service.
Ms Ng’s boyfriend drives his Mercedes-Benz E200 to and from his workplace in Bukit Batok.
Elsewhere, product manager N. Tan, 44, his wife and two children, his retired mother and his younger brother live in an HDB flat in Yio Chu Kang. Mr Tan, his mother and his brother each owns a car.
Mr Tan uses his Volkswagen Touran throughout the day to meet clients across multiple locations. He said using ride-hailing services would be more costly than funding his own car in the long run.
He also takes his children to school in Bukit Timah and his wife to her workplace at one-north every weekday morning.
Mr Tan’s younger brother is still waiting for his matrimonial home to be ready, so he mostly uses his BYD M6 to drive his wife around and visit his in-laws.
Mr Tan’s mother uses her Mercedes B-Class to meet friends and family.
He said having three cars is especially useful during emergencies. “If my child is unwell late at night, I could take him or her and go straight to the hospital. But if I use a ride-hailing service or take the public transport, there will be a delay.
“In my line of work, I have colleagues waiting for an hour for a car on a ride-hailing service to get to their next appointment.”
Mr Tay told The Straits Times he had raised the parliamentary question on behalf of a resident, after realising there was no publicly available information on car ownership across different housing types.
The resident, said Mr Tay, had suggested the possibility of imposing a levy on people who have two or more cars.
In July, a commentary in The Business Times suggested that the car ownership system could borrow ideas from the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) regime, which applies to properties. For instance, a premium could be levied on those who buy more than one car, and on permanent residents, foreigners and companies buying cars.
This is similar to how Singaporeans and PRs, for instance, have to pay the ABSD for their second and subsequent home purchases.
In response, the Ministry of Transport had said progressive car ownership here is mostly achieved through the additional registration fee – the main car tax – with owners of cars with higher open market value already paying more.
Dr Samuel Chng, research assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), said 2,000 HDB households owning at least three cars was noteworthy, although the figure was small in proportion. There were 1.13 million HDB flats as at 2024, according to the Singapore Department of Statistics.
Dr Chng, who heads SUTD’s Urban Psychology Lab at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, said it was not entirely surprising for a small segment of households to accumulate multiple vehicles for practical reasons.
He noted these households could be multi-generational ones with several working adults, families using vehicles for business and personal use, and those with specific transport needs for caregiving or hobbies.
He added that this figure also reflects some drivers’ lifestyle preferences or the perceived convenience of owning cars, despite Singapore’s strong disincentives to car ownership.
But Dr Chng does not expect this trend to rise significantly due to policy constraints, rising costs and the steady improvement of public transport options. These factors would make owning three cars increasingly impractical for most households.
The Government has adopted a zero vehicle population growth rate since February 2018, except for goods vehicles and buses.
The vehicle population is controlled through the supply of certificates of entitlement (COEs), which are needed to register a vehicle in Singapore.
In recent months, COE premiums for smaller cars had soared to all-time highs, but have since eased
