Blog

[SINGAPORE] Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums for passenger cars reached record levels in late October 2023.

The price of S$158,004 for the Open category remains the all-time high for COEs, while the passenger car categories A and B also set records of S$106,000 and S$150,001, respectively, in that round of bidding.

While a COE supply drought during that period meant industry observers expected prices to rise, none of them predicted the sheer scale of the price increases. As one observer told The Business Times, premiums were “crazy and the market made no sense”.

But those sky-high prices are reflective of the fact that premiums have been steadily rising over the past two decades.

They point to systemic factors beyond consumer demand that could continue to exert long-term price pressures on the COE market or at least, keep premiums from dipping to the lows of the past.