COE prices mostly down

Certificate of Entitlement (COE) prices for vehicles ended lower in all but two categories in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday.

The COE premium for small cars ended higher, bucking the downward trend seen in the previous bidding rounds.

The premium for cars up to 1,600cc had seen a downward trend since the government's moves to rein in car loans kicked in on 26 February.

But on Wednesday, the premium rose 2.4 per cent or S$1,468 to end at S$62,497, exceeding the COE price for big cars which slid from S$67,010 a fortnight ago to end at S$62,000, a fall of 7.5 per cent or S$5,010.

COE price in the Open Category also dropped, from S$66,989 to S$62,000 - a fall of S$4,989 or 7.5 per cent.

Meanwhile the COE price for commercial vehicles rose S$2,491 or 4.4 per cent to S$58,502.

For motorcycles, the premium dipped S$21 or 1.2 per cent to around S$1,791.

Raymond Tang, honorary secretary of Singapore Vehicle Traders Association, said: "The premium for small cars has gone up, but it's not significant. I think it's quite stable now.

"The next moment that we have to see is: how are they going to restructure the COE categories. Maybe there might be some changes...then we might see some changes in the premiums."

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Once again, Cat A is higher than Cat B and Open Cat, which isn't the usual case. It has been noted by bidders that there has been an increase in quota in the bigger cars, possibly due to more of them being scrapped.

The increased ARF must be hitting the bigger cars quite badly that even the rich are going for the smaller models albeit still in the luxurious brands like the 316i, C180 n the various VW models.