Here's Why Singapore Makes It so Incredibly Expensive to Own a Car

Singapore media professional Ellie Lim gave up her plan to buy a new Volvo SUV to ferry her newborn baby when she realized it was going to cost her more than S$200,000 ($142,000).
“I was quite shocked,” said Lim, 34. Coupled with high interest rates on car loans, fuel prices and maintenance fees, buying a new car is “a financially unsound decision,” she said. Why would you spend the cost of an apartment from the government’s Housing & Development Board for a rapidly depreciating asset? “These are all like HDB flats running on the road.”
Lim’s lament is a common one in Singapore, which strictly controls the number of vehicles on its roads by forcing buyers to bid for a limited quota of permits, making its autos among the most expensive in the world. Last month, pent-up consumer demand and a growing appetite for electric vehicles pushed the price of those permits to yet another record. But Singapore’s model of making cars a luxury, balanced by spending billions on a ubiquitous and efficient public transport system, is beginning to look less crazy as other global cities try to build more sustainable infrastructure.
“If you’re a city urban planner, you’d look at Singapore,” said Song Seng Wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking. It’s “one of the only cities that can keep its car population down. You can’t build more roads without taking space and resources from others, so if you want to drive, pay.”
Singapore’s government controls traffic growth with a series of quotas and taxes that can push up the on-the-road cost of a car to five times the wholesale price in the country of manufacture. The biggest levy is the Certificate of Entitlement, which is set in a twice-monthly auction. The COE gives the right to run a vehicle for 10 years in Singapore. Once it expires, you either have to scrap or export the car, or buy another COE.
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[@jeycalc6877]

well they country is even smaller than many cities, that is why. Well it's a city state

[@tamaandy]

Hi Bloomberg Quicktake Channel, awesome information about how expensive the car price in Singapore, may I take some footage for my video on the topic of traffic congestion in Jakarta? I'll give you a shout-out and include a link in the video description. Thanks in advance!

[@BPoweredLove]

If your COE expires, why isn't selling the car to someone else an option? Why is it only 1) scrap (destroy car), 2) export (get the car out of Singapore) or 3) buy/renew the COE?

[@entrydenied]

Technically you can but the person has to get a COE as well. And sometimes the cost of having to maintain a car that's more than 10 years old outweighs the price difference of getting a new car. If you think about it in the future, a 5 year old car is also probably easier to sell than a 15 year old car, if the buyer decides to sell it later.

[@BPoweredLove]

@@entrydenied What's the point of this system? Car population control by preventing the poor from realistically owning a car? That seems to be the purpose and goal of the Singaporean government from an outsider's view.

[@entrydenied]

@@BPoweredLove To reduce car ownership while improving public transportation to the point that most people don't need private transportation. Most people live a 3 to 5 min walk away from a bus stop(or a few bus stops for that matter) and a 5 to 10 min walk from a subway station. Public amenities are no more than 15 to 30 min away. We're a country with more than 100 shopping malls after all.

[@BPoweredLove]

@@entrydenied You could have just written "yep"! Haha. Because rich people (in general) do not take public transportation, surrounding themselves with us plebs.
Meaning, in very human-dense countries/areas, the way to filter out excessive congestion is too price out the lesser-advantaged. This applies to almost everything in life.

[@angxiang3186]

As an alternative to personal transportation ~ public transportation is super good in Singapore. But if u include family needs of a mode of transportation; eg sending young children to schools, fetching elderlies to medical appointments, then Gov is make meeting these obligations very difficult.
Other alternatives r there ~ eg a nucleus family car entitlement allocation as per similar to HDB flats.
But ~ Sg Gov wants the monies collected via COE: it is a big slice of tax/revenue collected.

[@wosamosman9814]

As a car enthusiast this is my idea of hell 😅😂

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

As a transit enthusiast, this is my idea of heaven.

[@PKMNFan4664]

@@WhatIsThis-zq4hk Being a car enthusiast and a transit enthusiast isn't mutually exclusive, you know.

[@aynrandfan7454]

Lmao my new BMW ix there is like 450k haha lucky I live in Canada where it was only 96k 🤣

[@jackheris687]

BMWs are hell to repair.

[@aynrandfan7454]

@@jackheris687 owned 3 bmws including an M3 in high school never had any issues repair wise

[@SuperEman500]

Only 67K used here in the U.S. Don't know why things are more expensive in Canada.

[@aynrandfan7454]

@@SuperEman500 wahhh that’s nuts …ya everything from housing, gas and automobiles are inflated in Canada…in Vancouver here our average home is now 1.2 million

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

@@aynrandfan7454 Ah so you rollover into new cars every few years and create a never ending mountain of debt.

[@AlmightyNOG]

What a terrible system

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

It's actually awesome because the transit there is amazing. Although, the extreme step of making cars so hard to get is only necessary there because the country is so small and there is not enough space for cars. It's not necessary in most countries

[@AlmightyNOG]

@@WhatIsThis-zq4hk The transit system is very impressive, I was just thinking how something like this would be impossible in my country due to the size of it.

[@Brian-cb3ce]

its not fair in the case that only the rich can afford to drive. It should be prioritized in a different way not how much money you have.

[@WhatIsThis-zq4hk]

@@Brian-cb3ce but that is exactly what they want to avoid: everyone driving. There is literally no room for anyone other than a few people to drive. May as well bring in a ton of tax revenue from rich people

[@vespaman101]

​@Brian-cb3ce driving isn't really necessary tho. If u wanna drive u gotta pay for the roads. I don't think it's perfect but it's the opposite of what we have in the USA and what we have is just as awful in its own way.
I forgot to mention. There is no income tax. You make 100k you keep 100k. There is only sales or value added tax to purchases. So you pay tax into what you use.

[@bandmankilllazh8409]

121

[@bandmankilllazh8409]

6

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:PANAMA RELOCATION TOURS!! WITH JACKIE! !🙋😊 👍 ❤ 👈"

[@bandmankilllazh8409]

5

[@bandmankilllazh8409]

2

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I keep on getting $380,000 every week from a new trading platforms in town

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[@hiderslopez3127]

How!! I know it’s possible because my sister gets $32,000 every week, I will be happy if you teach me how to go about it

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Her good reputation already speaks for her last month i invested over $100,000 with her and I've already made over $250,000 profit.

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How can I make a successful investment in stocks and profitable trades?? I’m thinking of Mrs Valerie 😏 and suggestions🤷

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She's awesome, perfect and a genius. I've made up T0 $162,050 trading.

[@quaissag368]

So that's why all the Singapur girls try to scam...

[@pohanahawaii]

😏 Certificate of Entitlement, I like it! 👍👍

[@Rapture_Ready_Rabbit]

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[@pebblepod30]

Singapore is one of the most amazing countries & govts in the world, imo. You citizens there are LUCKY LUCKY LUCKY.

[@billba]

😂

[@luckyM9963]

boring country.

[@Brian-cb3ce]

wow. Then driving is only for the rich eventually.

[@Nick-1992-SRB]

Yes it’s a dogs country.

[@deminada3964]

Yes a model to have as usual first and lower class citizens.

[@azureliteyahoo]

So how to control car population?

[@Nick-1992-SRB]

A hell country for anyone that loves cars absolute hell land 😂