COE prices close mostly lower; Category B down by nearly S$10,000

SINGAPORE: Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums dipped for all categories except commercial vehicles in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (Feb 7).

For Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, premiums closed at S$79,000, down from S$81,589 in the last exercise.

Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B fell to S$102,338 from S$112,000.

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$9,290, down from S$9,309 in the last exercise.

Open category COEs, which can be used for any vehicle type but end up being used mainly for large cars, fell to S$100,101 from S$109,004.

COEs for commercial vehicles, which include goods vehicles and buses, rose to S$72,001 from S$68,001 in the previous bidding exercise.

A total of 4,482 bids were received, with a quota of 2,482 COEs available.

The general fall in prices on Wednesday comes after premiums rose across the board in the last bidding exercise on Jan 17, rebounding after falling to levels not seen in almost two years in the exercise before that. 

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) previously announced that the COE quota for the February to April quarter will go up by 2 per cent. There will be a total of 14,707 COEs for this three-month period. 

This is a sharp drop in the rate of increase from the previous quarter, where the COE supply jumped 27 per cent in the quarter from November 2023 to January 2024.