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SINGAPORE, April 26, 2026 — Certificate of entitlement (COE) premiums eased across all vehicle categories in the September 23 tender exercise, with Category A dipping 0.8 per cent from an all-time high. The latest round left the segment for smaller cars and electric vehicles at S$131,890, down from the record S$133,009 set just two weeks earlier.
The pullback appeared in every category, though the declines were relatively small. Category B, which covers larger, more powerful cars and EVs, slipped 1.5 per cent from S$135,001 to S$133,000. Motorcycle premiums in Category D dropped 2.8 per cent to S$12,201, while open-category COEs — usable for any vehicle type except motorcycles but mostly taken up by big cars — fell 0.6 per cent to S$137,000. Commercial vehicle COEs, meanwhile, went from S$93,101 to S$92,144.
For anyone unfamiliar with Singapore’s vehicle ownership system, the numbers look extreme. A COE is not a tax rebate or an optional add-on; it is a mandatory right that lets a person register and use a vehicle for 10 years. The vehicle itself still has to be bought, insured, and maintained. The COE essentially sits on top of every other ownership cost, making Singapore one of the most expensive places in the world to drive.
The September outcome is best understood as a small cooling after a sharp run-up, rather than the start of a major correction. Prices remain well above levels from just a year earlier, and the underlying supply of COEs is still tight. Quotas are set years in advance by the Land Transport Authority after factoring in population growth, road capacity, and the number of vehicles expected to be deregistered. That means a single month of softer demand does not automatically lead to more COEs being released.
Dealers and industry watchers also point to changing buyer patterns. Electric vehicles have become a bigger part of the new-car market in Singapore, and both Category A and Category B now include EVs. Because charging infrastructure continues to expand and more battery-powered models are entering the market, demand for EV-friendly categories has stayed resilient even when overall sentiment cools. Some see the September dip as a temporary pause rather than a reversal, noting that the quota for the current cycle remains limited.
For readers in the United States, where car prices are determined by manufacturers and dealers and registration fees are generally modest, Singapore’s COE system may seem like a different universe. But it offers a useful example of how policy can directly shape car ownership. Instead of relying on congestion charges or fuel taxes alone, the city-state uses a bidding market to ration road space. Every COE transaction effectively adds tens of thousands of dollars to the final price of a car, which changes how households buy, use, and keep their vehicles.
The business side of the tender also tells a broader story. Commercial vehicle premiums declined, even though many fleet operators have little flexibility in their bidding. Delivery companies and freight firms depend on vans and trucks for daily operations, so they tend to bid regardless of the price level. The fact that this category also fell suggests the cool-down was not limited to private buyers but touched the whole vehicle market.
Motorcycle owners, who are more price-sensitive, saw a bigger percentage decline than any other category. A 2.8 per cent drop is modest in absolute terms — from S$12,556 to S$12,201 — but it is consistent with the quieter tone of the exercise. Motorcycles remain a popular option in land-scarce Singapore, and a COE for a bike is still far cheaper than one for a car, making it an entry point for many first-time vehicle owners.
Looking beyond the numbers, the government is in the middle of a review of the COE system itself. The review is examining how cars are categorised, with an eye to modernising rules that were designed decades ago. Feedback is being collected from motorists, dealers, manufacturers, and academics, and the exercise is expected to wrap up by the end of 2026. Possible changes could include reclassifying vehicles by weight, emissions, or usage patterns instead of engine capacity and power output — a shift that would ripple through pricing and demand.
For now, the immediate focus is on what happens in the next tender. If bidding intensity continues to soften, COE prices could drift further downward. But if EV orders surge again or the quota remains constrained, premiums could easily bounce back. The September results provide a useful baseline, but they do not settle the direction of the market.
The bigger structural question is the government review. Any revision to the categories could change how COEs are allocated, who competes in which segment, and ultimately how much people pay. It could also affect the resale value of existing COEs, something current vehicle owners will be watching closely. Those changes, more than any single monthly move, will shape the affordability of car ownership in Singapore for years to come.
What makes Singapore’s COE market worth following outside Asia is the clarity it gives about how scarcity translates into cost. There is no ambiguity about supply and demand in this system: the government fixes the number of certificates, and buyers bid for them. The September tender showed that even a small easing can happen across the board when demand cools slightly, but it also underlined how far prices have climbed from the levels of a few years ago. With the review still underway and the next round of bidding ahead, the only certainty is that COE prices will keep moving — and that they will remain a defining feature of car ownership in Singapore.
