Certificate of Entitlement

The Certificate of Entitlement or COE is the quota license received from a successful winning bid in a open bid uniform price auction which grants the legal right of the holder to register, own and use a vehicle in Singapore for a period of 10 years.

History
On 1 May 1990, the then transportation unit of Singapore's Public Works Department (PWD) instituted a quota limit to vehicles called the COE when rising affluence in the city-state catapulted land transport network usage and previous measure to curb vehicle ownership by simply increasing road taxes was ineffective in controlling vehicle population growth. The premise was that the small city-state had limited land resources and with demand for vehicle ownership spiralling out of control, would result in traffic conditions exceeding the criterion of a healthy road network that is sustainable by developments in land transport infrastructure resulting in gridlock. Along with a controversial congestion tax called Electronic Road Pricing, the COE system is one of the key pillars in Singapore's traffic management strategies that aims to provide a sustainable urban quality of life at the expense of her citizens.

System
Before buying a new vehicle, potential vehicle owners in Singapore are required by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to first place a monetary bid for a Certificate of Entitlement (COE). The number of available COEs is governed by a quota system called the Vehicle Quota System (VQS) and is announced by LTA in April of each year with a review in October for possible adjustments for the period of one year starting from May. Approximately one-twelfth of the yearly quota is auctioned off each month in a sealed-bid, uniform price auction system and successful bidders pay the lowest winning bid.

Vehicle Quota System (VQS)
The number of COEs available to the public is regulated by the Vehicle Quota System (VQS) that is calculated every 6 months based on the following conditions:
 * 1) Actual number of vehicles taken off the roads  (i.e. number of vehicles de-registered)
 * 2) Allowable growth in vehicle population
 * 3) Adjustments arising from temporary COEs that have expired or were cancelled.

Formula
Since the change in the total motor vehicle population is given by the number of registrations minus the number of de-registrations and any unallocated quota in a given year may be carried over to the following year, the quota formula is as follows:


 * $$\begin{align} (\text{Total COE Quota})_{qy} = &g.(\text{Motor vehicle population})_{y-1} \\ &+ (\text{Projected de-registrations})_{y} \\&+ (\text{Unallocated quota})_{qy-1} \end{align}$$

In the formula above, the subscript $$y$$ denotes calendar year and the subscript $$qy$$ denotes quota year (May to April). Initially, projected deregistrations for (calendar) year $$y$$ were simply taken to be equal to actual deregistrations in $$y-1$$ but from quota year 1999-2000 onwards, a projected number of deregistrations has been used.

Each year, the quota is set to allow for a targeted $$g$$ percent growth in the total motor vehicle population, plus additional quota licenses to cover the number of motor vehicles that will be deregistered during the (calendar) year, plus any unallocated quota licenses from the previous quota year.

Validity
The holder of a COE is allowed to own a vehicle for an initial period of 10 years, after which they must scrap or export their vehicle or bid for another COE at the prevailing rate if they wish to continue using their vehicle for a further 5 or 10 years.

At the end of the 10-year COE period, vehicle owners may choose to deregister their vehicle or to revalidate their COEs for another 5 or 10-year period by paying the Prevailing Quota Premium, which is the three-month moving average of the Quota Premium for the respective vehicle category. You do not need to bid for a new COE to renew the existing COE of your vehicle. A 5-year COE cannot be further renewed, which means that at the end of a 5-year COE, the vehicle will have to be de-registered and either scrapped or exported to another country other than Singapore.

Depending on the value of the COE at the time of renewal vehicle owners are subjected to a somewhat emotional dilemma of whether to pay for a new COE which can amount to more than the market value of the vehicle or to deregister their vehicle. The emotional dilemma is certainly enhanced when the vehicle owner is forced to deregister and scrap an otherwise road worthy vehicle due to lack of time or insufficient funds to afford the COE at the prevailing rate.

For comparison in terms of vehicle value to COE value a Second Hand 2007 Mercedes-Benz C200K with a COE expiring in 2017 was advertised at S$86,800. As of November 2013 for a category B Car with a cc above 1600 the COE is priced at S$84,578.

Auction Process
COE biddings starts on the first and third Monday of the month and typically lasts for three days to the following Wednesday. Bidding duration will be pushed further in some circumstances, including public holidays. Bidding results can be obtained through the local media on the same day or on a website.

All COE bids made in the two car categories (Cat A and B COEs) and the motorcycle category (Cat D COEs) must be made in the name of the buyer. Once COE is obtained, the vehicle has to be registered in the name of the bidder, i.e. Cat A, B and D COEs are non-transferable. To provide flexibility, successful COE bids in the Cat C (Goods vehicles and Buses) and Cat E (Open Category) in the name of the individuals are transferable. However these can only be transferred once within the first 3 months, while successful bids by companies are not transferable at all.

An additional restriction on car ownership is the requirement that motor vehicles more than ten years old, known as 'time expired' vehicles, must be either renew the COE for either 5 or 10 years or de-register the vehicle for scrapping or exporting from Singapore, usually to neighbouring countries. For vehicles which have a renewed COE for 5 years the owner of the vehicle has to scrap the vehicle at the end of the period with no option to renew the COE.

Some of these vehicles have been exported farther to other right hand drive countries like New Zealand, which has traditionally imported such vehicles from Japan. The result of the peculiarities of the Singapore car market has resulted in Singapore being the second largest exporter of used cars in the world after Japan. Cars are exported to many countries, including Libya and Trinidad.

Owners of such vehicles are given financial incentives to do this, which include a Preferential Additional Registration Fee (PARF). This program was implemented to reduce traffic congestion and it complements other measures to curb road usage such as the Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) program.

COE Category Refinement in 2013
In September 2013, The COE system has been refined to include a new criterion for Category A cars. Under the change, the engine power of Cat A cars should not exceed 97 kilowatts (kW). This is equivalent to about 130 brake horsepower. This is in addition to the previous criterion of engine capacity of Cat A cars not exceeding 1600 cubic centimetres. However, cars with engine power output exceeding 97kW will be classified under Category B in COE bidding exercises starting February 2014 despite having engine capacity below 1600 cubic centimetres. The review of the COE categories' criteria was because LTA wanted to differentiate and regulate the buying of mass market and premium cars under Cat A in a bid to control COE prices that hovered closer and closer to S$100,000.

Categories
Initially, COEs were divided into 8 categories but after many revisions, the system has been simplified to just five categories. Categories A, B & D are non-transferable. Taxis used to be classed under category A but issuance of COEs became unrestricted from August 2012 onwards.

Prior to May 1999

Current Categories

Quota Premium
March 2009 2nd Open Bidding

April 2010 1st Open Bidding

December 2011 1st Open Bidding

Vehicle growth rate
From April 2010, the COE quota calculation was amended. Under the new methodology, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) recycles the COE quota from the actual vehicle deregistrations in the most recent six-month period back into the system. Instead of an annual quota, figures will be revised every six months. For example, there are 800,000 vehicles as of January. Based on the allowable growth rate of 1.5 percent, there will be an additional 6000 COEs for sale every six months. On top of the number of vehicles deregistered in the same period (for example, 20,000) this means the COE quota for July to December will be 26,000.

In early October 2011, Singapore Minister for Transport Lui Tuck Yew has said that Singapore's annual vehicle growth cap would be cut further from 2012. The annual vehicle population growth rate will be lowered from the current 1.5% to 1.0% in 2012, and then to 0.5% in 2013 and 2014.

The lower vehicle growth rate will be more closely aligned to the pace of road growth going forward. However, in May 2012, Lui Tuck Yew did an about turn and said that more COE may be released and the plans to quotas cut car growth would be delayed.

Average vehicle pricing
Detailed cost structures when buying a car can be found at this site. All prices are in Singapore dollars dated March 2012
 * Compact : S$71,999 - S$89,500
 * Mid-size : S$81,999 - S$149,000
 * Full-size sedan : > S$150,000