More COEs available in next three months

A TOTAL of 11,019 certificates of entitlement (COEs) will be available in the August-October quota period, 5.6 per cent more than the current three-month supply – a development which should continue to cool an overheated market.

The increase has largely to do with an extraordinary adjustment announced in May.

In the move, the Land Transport Authority effectively brought forward some COEs from projected peak-supply years. In total, 1,025 such COEs were pumped into the August-October quota – all for cars.

Individually, all the COE categories will see increased supply, except for motorcycles, which will have a 9.2 per cent drop in supply to 2,957.

The category for smaller, less powerful cars will have 3,785 COEs, or 12.7 per cent more. Buyers and sellers of bigger, more powerful cars will have 2,816 COEs, or 5.7 per cent more.

The Open category, which is a proxy for bigger, more powerful cars, will have 777 COEs, or 4.4 per cent more.

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In all, car buyers and sellers will have 7,378 COEs for the period, or 9.1 per cent more than now.

Meanwhile, the commercial vehicle category will see a 66.4 per cent jump in supply to 684 COEs.

Industry watchers said the bigger quota followed an increase in the number of vehicles deregistered in the preceding three months.

SEE ALSO

COE prices dip in all categories except for Category A cars

While this is expected to temper prices, they said bolder measures have to be introduced before COE prices can ease further.

These include removing private-hire, car rental and car-sharing bidders from the bidding process, introducing a cap on their fleet sizes, and prohibiting unfettered conversion of such cars to private passengers. THE STRAITS TIMES

See how COE premiums have fluctuated over the years with BT’s COE tracker.