SINGAPORE - Certificate of entitlement (COE) prices ended higher across all categories in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Jan 19).
The category for cars above 1,600cc and 130hp saw the biggest hike. At $82,001, it represented a 5.5 per cent increase over the $77,700 from the last bidding exercise on Jan 5.
Motor dealers have seen more interest in the larger cars since an announcement last week that COEs in this category will be reduced slightly from February to April.
“Customers are not expecting COE prices to come down anytime soon,” said Ms Corinne Chua, Wearnes Automotive’s managing director for Volvo Cars.
The next biggest mover was the category for motorcycles. From $9,689 before, it rose by 3.2 per cent to hit $10,000.
This is a new record for the category. A spokesman for the Singapore Motor Cycle Trade Association said this was to be expected, given how motorcycle COE prices have been hovering above $9,000 since the second half of 2021.
He attributes the consistently high COE prices to a combination of the very limited quota for motorcycles and the pressure for importers to still register motorcycles to hit their targets.
Commercial vehicle COE premiums adjusted upwards by a much milder 1.9 per cent, from $42,200 to $43,001.
The price of Open COE, which can be used for all vehicle types other than motorcycles, also moved very slightly from an already high $82,501 before to $83,911, representing a 1.7 per cent increase.
Ms Chua said: “Given that it will be a three-week gap to the next bidding exercise, dealers may have wanted to secure some Open COEs to allow for registrations in time for the Chinese New Year.”
The most stable category is the one for cars up to 1,600cc and 130hp. It has increased by just $299 or 0.5 per cent to $57,898. The category also saw the most lethargic bidding this time round.
Mr Ng Choon Wee, commercial director at Komoco Motors, said: “The market for Cat A cars is still weak. The majority of bids only came in during the last 10 minutes. This may be the fleet operators seeing an opportunity to capitalise on (relatively) cheaper COEs.”
The next bidding exercise runs from Feb 7 to Feb 8.
