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SINGAPORE: The premiums for Certificates of Entitlement for cars have more than doubled after last month's tumble.
In the latest open bidding exercise, COE prices for cars 1,600cc and below rose to $12,602 from $5,200 last month.
For cars above 1,600cc, the premium increased by $7,500 to $13,502.
COE prices for the Open Category also rose, by $1,397 to $13,201.
The premiums for goods vehicles and buses remained unchanged at $1 while those for motorcycles spiked by $63 to $964.
Last month's low prices did not persuade some people to buy.
"When the COE is higher, I will get back more in the future. So I don't see there is any difference," said a potential car buyer.
"When you purchase a car at a higher price, definitely the price will be higher when you resell. So I don't see a reason why there is a hoo-ha to buy a car when the COE prices are low," said another.
So some buyers are pragmatic when buying a new car.
But others don't want to miss out on the chance of a good deal.
In the last bidding round, almost twice the number of bids were received as there were COEs available.
But what caused the drop the last time round?
Edmund Gin, from Cycle & Carriage Automotive, said: "People who come in during that period of time before the COE drop could not have got their car before Chinese New Year. So everybody was thinking, 'hey, I come into the showroom and I can't get a car before Chinese New Year, I might as well wait'. The buying power was not there. So that has actually caused the COE to come down to $5,000 level."
And next month, the start of the new financial year will reveal the new COE quotas - which in turn will determine the general price of COEs.
Edmund said: "General feel is based on the scrapping of cars. Over the last one year, it has reduced. So the number of cars on the road has been kept at a certain level. So we should foresee less COEs being made available."
With the latest increases in COE premiums, the prices of most cars in Category A (1,600cc and below) should go up $1,000 to $2,000, while those in Category B (above 1,600cc) will rise some $1,000. - CNA/ir
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