Separate car dealers from buyers in COE bidding

I ASKED my experienced colleague, a market reporter of some 20 years, if there is an element of price fixing in the current Certificate of Entitlement (COE) bidding system.

He replied: "But it is in the interest of car dealers to have low COE prices."

Last Wednesday, I watched the live bidding results for a few hours until it closed at 4pm. Interestingly, the prices for Cat B spiked up quickly from one dollar to over S$40,000 once the quota was oversubscribed. Cat A prices showed a more gradual rise. It hovered below S$15,000 for a short while after the quota was oversubscribed , indicating a small number of private bids.