SINGAPORE — The next three months will see a sharp jump in the number of Certificates of Entitlement (COEs) entering the market in almost all categories, as motorists continue to de-register cars hitting the 10-year mark.

A total of 25,210 COEs — or 8,403 COEs a month — will be available from next month until April. This is up 16.4 per cent from the quota for November to this month, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said today (Jan 14).

The figures are almost double the quota from a year ago during the same period, when 4,705 COEs were released monthly from February to April.

Category A, which is for cars of up to 1600cc and 97kW, will see a monthly quota of 4,057 COEs, an increase of 22.5 per cent. Category B for bigger cars above 1600cc or 97kW will have 2,417 COEs monthly, an increase of 18 per cent. The Open Category, which can be used for any vehicle type but is usually used for big cars, will have 892 COEs monthly, an increase of 24 per cent.

The motorcycle category will see the smallest rate of increase in quota at 9 per cent, to 713 COEs monthly, after a decrease in the last three months. On the other hand, the quota for goods vehicles and buses COEs will fall steeply by 33 per cent to 324 COEs monthly, reversing an increase in the preceding three months.

The number of COEs available depends on the number of vehicles de-registered, and the large number of COEs available of late is due to the high volume of older vehicles being deregistered.

Figures from the LTA showed that as of Dec 31, 2014, nearly 27 per cent of the 915,524 vehicles on the road were between eight to just under 10 years old. As such, the number of deregistrations — and in turn the COE quota — is expected to stay high over the next three years.

In the latest bidding exercise last week, COE premiums closed mostly lower, with premiums for small cars plunging to S$45,002, the lowest since May 2011.

Mr Eddie Loo, managing director of car dealer CarTimes Automobile, said he expects COE prices to stabilise as there will be “a lot of supply”, predicting that small car premiums could be between S$40,000 to S$45,000.

But Mr Jeremy Soh, honorary secretary of the Singapore Vehicle Traders Association, said he expects a spike in COE prices in the next few exercises, due to various upcoming car launches, trade shows and carnivals. This will entice people to buy a car, which drives up demand for cars, he added.

But in the long run, he expected COE prices to be “on the downtrend”.  “Many more cars will be reaching their 10-year mark (which means car owners will deregister them) and it will result in more COE supply,” he said. “This will affect the COE prices in the long-run.”