COE quota to increase by 13% in the quarter starting November

SINGAPORE: There will be more Certificates of Entitlement (COE) available in the coming quarter from November 2023 to January 2024, with the overall quota going up by 13 per cent.

Announcing this on Friday (Oct 13), the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said there will be a total of 12,774 COEs for the quarter. 

The largest increases are in categories A and C.

For Category A - mainly used for smaller mass-market cars - the quota will be 22 per cent higher than the previous quarter and 81 per cent higher than the same quarter last year.

"This is facilitated by bringing forward 1,570 guaranteed deregistrations of vehicles on five-year renewal," said LTA. 

The quota for goods vehicles and buses - in category C - will be 35 per cent higher than the previous quarter and 124 per cent more than the same quarter last year. 

For larger cars in Category B, the supply will go up by about 4 per cent compared with the previous quarter. 

The quota for the Open Category will go up by 8 per cent while the supply of motorcycle COEs will increase by 5 per cent.

Bidding under the new quota will start on Nov 6.

LTA added that the supply for categories A, B and C are expected to continue to increase next year.

The Category D quota next year is expected to be "comparable" to 2023, the agency said.

COE prices have been on the rise in recent weeks, with the Open Category premium topping S$150,000 (US$109,615) for the first time on Oct 4.

Prices for Category B cars also rose to a record S$146,002 in the same tender.

The COE supply for the quarter consists of three components:

• Twenty-five per cent of the replacement COEs from vehicles deregistered in the 12-month period from October 2022 to September 2023
• Provision for 0.25 per cent per annum growth for Category C based on the Category C vehicle population as of Dec 31, 2022
• Adjustments for changes in the taxi population, expired COEs, Early Turnover Scheme for commercial vehicles and redistribution from guaranteed deregistrations for Category A and Category B