If you are thinking of buying a car in Singapore, the piece of paper giving you the right to own and use it is back to costing almost S$129,000.
Category A Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums jumped to S$128,501 in the bidding exercise that closed on Wednesday, 19 August. That was a 3.7 per cent increase from S$123,890 in the previous exercise.
It was the first increase in Category A premiums in three bidding exercises and leaves the price just S$499 below the all-time record of S$129,000, which was set on 8 July.
In other words, the COE alone for a smaller car is once again nearly S$129,000, before you even count the cost of the actual vehicle.
Most COE Categories Went Up
Category A covers non-fully electric cars with engines of up to 1,600cc and maximum power output of up to 97kW, as well as fully electric cars producing up to 110kW.
Prices also increased in most of the other COE categories on 19 August.
Category B, for larger or more powerful cars, rose 0.8 per cent from S$129,910 to S$131,001.
Open Category COEs, or Category E, climbed from S$131,000 to S$135,000, its fifth consecutive increase. These COEs can be used for any vehicle except motorcycles, although they are mainly used for larger cars.
Motorcycle COEs recorded the biggest percentage increase of the exercise, jumping 7.6 per cent from S$10,503 to S$11,301.
The only category to become cheaper was Category C, which covers goods vehicles and buses. Its premium fell 1.7 per cent from S$91,545 to S$90,002.
4,515 Bids Were Submitted for 3,205 COEs
Across all five categories, 4,515 bids were received for a total quota of 3,205 COEs in the 19 August exercise.
The high Category A price comes even though Singapore's overall COE supply for the August to October quarter was raised slightly.
The Land Transport Authority set the three-month quota at 19,085 COEs, up 0.2 per cent from 19,052 in the May to July period.
However, that overall increase does not mean every category received more certificates.
The total Category A allocation for August to October is 7,134, down from 7,434 in the previous three-month period. Category B's allocation, meanwhile, increased from 5,205 to 5,527.
For anyone hoping that the Category A record of S$129,000 in July was a brief peak, the latest result puts prices almost right back where they started.
