SINGAPORE — Certificate of Entitlement (COE) premiums closed mostly higher in the latest bidding exercise on Wednesday (May 8), with larger cars seeing the highest increase.

Premiums for larger and more powerful cars in Category B rose by more than S$3,000, from S$102,001 in the last exercise to S$105,002.

Open category COEs, which can be used for any vehicle type but end up being used mainly for large cars, rose to S$104,689 from S$103,249.

COEs for commercial vehicles, which include goods vehicles and buses, increased to S$70,001 from S$68,502 in the previous bidding exercise.

Premiums fell in the remaining two categories. 

For Category A cars, or those 1,600cc and below with horsepower not exceeding 130bhp, premiums closed at S$93,604, down from S$94,010 in the last exercise.

Motorcycle premiums closed at S$9,503, down from S$9,990.

A total of 4,166 bids were received, with a quota of 2,545 COEs available.

For the May to July period, there will be a 2.7 per cent increase in the overall supply of COEs.

There will be a total of 15,104 COEs, up from 14,707 in the previous quarter, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said in April.

The quota for Category A will go up by 3 per cent, while COEs in Category B will go up by 1.3 per cent. 

There will also be 12.9 per cent more COEs for vehicles in the Open Category.

For commercial vehicles, the COE supply will increase by 5.3 per cent.

The quota for motorcycles will remain unchanged.

LTA added that the 266 Open Category temporary COEs that expired between January and March will be available for bidding in the May to July quarter. CNA