{"id":5937,"date":"2017-12-11T17:50:36","date_gmt":"2017-12-11T09:50:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.carro.sg\/?p=5937"},"modified":"2025-11-18T17:40:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T09:40:16","slug":"coe-system-work-singapore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/coe-system-work-singapore\/","title":{"rendered":"How Does the COE System Work in Singapore?"},"content":{"rendered":"Having a rapid progress back in the 90s, Singapore soon ran out of space to expand its roads. That meant they had to do something about the vehicle population, and the solution was \u2013 The Certificate of Entitlement (COE). This system ensures that people would revert to cars as a last and pricey resort. If you just moved to Singapore and are unfamiliar with it, or maybe you are just a curious foreigner, we\u2019ve prepared a little guide for you to better understand how the COE system works, so you know more than just the COE price.\r\n<h1><strong>What is a COE and how is its price determined?<\/strong><\/h1>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_5938\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5938\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5938\" src=\"https:\/\/carro.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-vehicle-httpwww.stcars.sgarticles-masteruploadarticle99660__1357271526.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"284\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-vehicle-httpwww.stcars.sgarticles-masteruploadarticle99660__1357271526.jpg.jpg 500w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-vehicle-httpwww.stcars.sgarticles-masteruploadarticle99660__1357271526.jpg-300x170.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5938\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: httpwww.stcars.sgarticles-masteruploadarticle99660__1357271526.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nFor a person to own and operate a vehicle they must bid for the Certificate of Entitlement (COE). If they win the bid, they have the right to operate that specific vehicle for a period of 10 years. Upon expiry; the person has the option to pay the Prevailing Quota Premium and renew their COE for another 5 \u2013 10 years.\r\n<h3><strong>COE Categories<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe COE price depends on which category your vehicle belongs.\r\nThere are five categories:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>Category A \u2013 Cars with &lt;1600cc and &lt;97KW engine<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Category B \u2013 Cars with &gt;1600cc and &gt;97KW engine<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Category C \u2013 Goods Vehicles and Busses<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Category D \u2013 Motorcycles<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Category E \u2013 \u201cOpen\u201d (for any kind of vehicle)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<h3><strong>Vehicle Quota System (VQS<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nThe number of issued COEs every year is regulated by the Vehicle Quota System that is calculated every six months based on the following conditions:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li><strong>Motor vehicle population<\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Projected de-registrations<\/strong><\/li>\r\n \t<li><strong>Unallocated quota(temporary COEs that have expired or were canceled)<\/strong><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nSince the quota of COE is regulated, not every person can have a COE and they must bid for it in the COE open bidding system where things can get pretty costly.\r\n<h2><strong>The COE Open Bid System<\/strong><\/h2>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_5940\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5940\" style=\"width: 745px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5940\" src=\"https:\/\/carro.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-Prices-httpwww.oneshift.comnew_carslcoe.php_.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"745\" height=\"347\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-Prices-httpwww.oneshift.comnew_carslcoe.php_.png 745w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-Prices-httpwww.oneshift.comnew_carslcoe.php_-300x140.png 300w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/COE-Prices-httpwww.oneshift.comnew_carslcoe.php_-696x324.png 696w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 745px) 100vw, 745px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5940\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: httpwww.oneshift.comnew_carslcoe.php<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nEvery person has a right to bid for a COE, and they are limited to one per person (except for company, organizations or business). The starting bid of COE always starts at $1, but unfortunately that price is quickly surpassed by thousands of times. Considered a luxury, COE prices have hit some sky high prices in the previous years, exceeding $80,000 at some point. When this article was written, prices are stabilized at $46,000 for category A, $53.000 for category B and $6.100 for category D.\r\n<h3><strong>How it works?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_5941\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5941\" style=\"width: 1700px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5941\" src=\"https:\/\/carro.sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1700\" height=\"730\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg.jpg 1700w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-300x129.jpg 300w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-768x330.jpg 768w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-1024x440.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-696x299.jpg 696w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-1068x459.jpg 1068w, https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/auctionhttpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg-978x420.jpg 978w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5941\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: httpsthekratomsyndicate.commediawysiwygauction_header_pic_1.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nThere are two open COE bids each month that are held each first and third Monday of the month. They last two days, up until Wednesday at 4 pm. If the bidding day overlaps with holiday, then they are extended. There are five stages of the bidding process:\r\n<ol>\r\n \t<li>Bidders submit their reserve price to the open bidding system. This price is the maximum amount that the bidder is ready to pay for their COE.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Then, the bidding system automatically raises the current COE price by 1$. The COE price is raised depending of the bidder\u2019s reserve price.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>When a bidder\u2019s reserve price is outmatched by the current COE price (CCP), that bidder is out of the bid, and his deposit is given back.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>When the number of bidders that had their reserve price over the CCP and the number of available COE equals, then the CCP stops.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>The bidding then stops, and the bidders that are left in the bid win their COE<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<h3><strong>How to bid?<\/strong><\/h3>\r\nFor a person to bid for COE, they need to have an account in one of these banks:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>DBS \/POSB (for Individuals)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>DBS (for Companies and Motor traders)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>UOB (for Companies and Motor traders)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>Maybank (for Companies and Motor traders)<\/li>\r\n \t<li>LTA Open Bidding Website (<a href=\"https:\/\/ocoe.lta.gov.sg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/ocoe.lta.gov.sg<\/a>)<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\nFixed deposit of $200 for Category D or $10,000 for the other categories will be deducted from your account. If the bid is unsuccessful, the full amount of the deposit is given back.\r\nYou can bid for COEs at ATMs, over the phone or online. You will be able to set and revise your reserve price. If you win the bid, the difference in the amount of the deposit and the price of the COE will be deducted from your bank account upon registration.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Having a rapid progress back in the 90s, Singapore soon ran out of space to expand its roads. That meant they had to do something about the vehicle population, and the solution was \u2013 The Certificate of Entitlement (COE). This system ensures that people would revert to cars as a last and pricey resort. If &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5942,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[721,725],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-buying-tips","category-lifestyle-car-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15993,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5937\/revisions\/15993"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carro.co\/sg\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}