Bid deposit for motorcycle COE rises from S$200 to S$800, validity cut from 6 to 3 months

SINGAPORE — The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will raise the bid deposit for motorcycle Certificates of Entitlement (COE) from S$200 to S$800 in an attempt to “encourage prudent bidding behaviour”.

At the same time, the validity period of the temporary COE for motorcycles will be shortened from six months to three months.

In a news release on Monday (March 14), LTA said that both changes will take place from the second COE bidding exercise this month, which is March 21 to 23.

The authority added that the COE bid deposit will be forfeited only if the temporary COE issued to each successful bidder “is not used to register a motorcycle before it expires”.

On the shortened validity period of the temporary COEs, LTA said that those which have not been used to register a motorcycle within three months will be forfeited and returned to the bidding pool in the next COE quarter.

“This will allow unutilised temporary COEs to be returned to the market more quickly,” LTA said.

It, however, stressed that the motorcycle temporary COEs that have already been obtained before the second COE bidding exercise this month will not be affected.

“These changes do not apply to other COE categories,” LTA added.

Motorcycle COEs reached an all-time high of S$11,400 at the end of the latest bidding exercise last Wednesday.

At the same time, COE prices rose across all categories that day. This is the fourth consecutive COE bidding since Jan 19 that premiums have risen across all categories of vehicles.