COE quota up 2.6% to 18,701 for August-October period
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The first tender under the new COE supply period closes on Aug 6.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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- LTA announces 18,701 COEs available for bidding, an increase from the previous period, across all categories except motorcycles, which remain unchanged.
- COE supply is determined by vehicle deregistrations, brought forward COEs, and additional injections to stabilise supply, with fewer injections this period.
- Motor dealers believe that COE premium will likely remain at the current levels.
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SINGAPORE – There will be 469 more certificates of entitlement (COEs) available for tender between August and October, a 2.6 per cent increase over the preceding three-month period.
In total, 18,701 certificates will be available for bidding, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said on July 28. This is up from the 18,232 COEs available from May to July
At 7,586, the number of Category A COEs – meant for smaller and less powerful cars and electric vehicles (EVs) – is 1 per cent higher than the 7,511 certificates available in the preceding period.
The supply of Category B COEs, meant for larger and more powerful cars and EVs, for August to October will stand at 4,737 certificates, an increase of 1 per cent from 4,689.
For commercial vehicles (Category C), there will be 1,642 certificates, 1 per cent higher than the 1,625 certificates before.
The supply of motorcycle (Category D) COEs is unchanged from the preceding period at 3,198 certificates.
Open category (Category E) COEs, which can be used to register any vehicle type other than motorcycles, will see an increase of 27.2 per cent to 1,538 certificates, up from 1,209.
The COE supply is mainly determined by the average number of vehicle deregistrations in the previous 12 months. Also contributing to the supply are COEs that are brought forward for vehicles due to be deregistered in the future and additional certificates that the LTA said it will inject over the next few years.
A COE gives a person the right to own a vehicle in Singapore.
Since 2018, the LTA has maintained a zero vehicle population growth rate for all COE categories other than that for commercial vehicles, which is allowed an increase of 0.25 per cent per annum.
While the overall COE supply will be higher than the preceding quarter’s, the 2.6 per cent increment is smaller than in the past three quarters, when the increases were between 3.6 per cent (November 2024 to January 2025) and 8.2 per cent (February 2025 to April 2025).
The LTA introduced the measure to bring forward COEs that are due to expire in the future to help stabilise supply.
Since February 2025, the LTA has also begun injecting additional COEs based on evolving travel patterns,
At 4,354 certificates, the number of brought-forward and additional COEs injected for the August to October period is fewer than for the preceding three months, when there were 5,155 such certificates. There are no exact guidelines on how many such COEs are introduced at each supply announcement.
Motor dealers like Mr Chong Kah Wei, managing director of Trans Eurokars, distributor of Mazda, said that based on vehicle deregistration data, which his company has been tracking, the increase in the supply of COEs for larger cars should have been higher than that announced. “With this quota, I guess COE premiums will stay at the current level,” he said.
The vehicle deregistration rate is rising. In the latest quota announcement, 14,181 COEs came from deregistrations. This is up from 13,087 deregistrations for the April to July period and 12,969 certificates for the February to April period.
Mr Nicholas Wong, chief executive of Honda agent Kah Motor, said he is not sure how COE supply is calculated. “When there are more deregistrations, it seems that the backfill from the LTA is smaller. With this COE supply, it doesn’t seem that the premium will ease any time soon.”
The first tender exercise under the new COE supply period closes on Aug 6.
