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Cost of Car Ownership in Singapore Hits a New Record High

The price of a “certificate for entitlement” for a small vehicle rose to nearly $100,000 in the latest round of bidding.

The cost of owning a car in Singapore has hit a new record high, after the price of special car ownership certificates for small vehicles rose to nearly $100,000 yesterday.

Singapore regularly ​auctions a fixed number of “certificates of entitlement” (COEs) that permit car ownership ⁠for a fixed period of 10 years. Introduced in 1990, the COE system aims to limit the number of vehicles on the ​road to about 1 million. This has made Singapore – a city-state of 6.1 million with abundant public transport – one of the most expensive places in the world to own a car.

According to Mothership.sg, the COE for Category A cars, or those with an engine capacity below 1.6 liters, hit a record S$129,000 ($99,756), during the latest round of bidding yesterday, an amount approaching the median household income in Singapore.

The Category B premium, which applies to larger, more powerful cars such as SUVs, rose from S$123,502 to S$130,889 ($101,192). The COE for commercial vehicles also rose to a record S$95,000 ($73,447), while motorcycle certificates rose slightly from S$9,989 to S$10,201 ($7,886).

These prices are paid on top of the actual cost of the car and other associated costs such as customs duties and taxes. The result is that certificates of ownership alone cost several times as much as cars so in most other nations.

As Reuters notes, “the price of a certificate alone is now equivalent to the cost of buying four Toyota ​Corollas in the ​United States.” The........

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