Singapore car ownership permit costs 100,000 euros

(Patria) - The price of a car ownership permit in Singapore has jumped to a record 101,000 euros.

The city-state introduced a 10-year Certificate of Entitlement (COE) system in 1990 as a measure against traffic congestion.

Singapore residents have had to have a COE if they wanted to buy a vehicle since then. Permits are sold every two weeks at auctions, and the government controls the number of certificates for sale.

Singapore, along with taxes and import duties, is the most expensive place in the world to buy a car.

For example, a new Toyota Camry Hybrid in Singapore costs around 250,000 Singapore dollars, which includes the cost of the COE and taxes - that's about six times more expensive than in the US, the BBC writes.

There are different types of COE for smaller cars, motorcycles, and commercial vehicles.

Permit prices have reached record levels for several months in a row as the post-pandemic recovery boosted demand.

The lowest COE for a car costs 104,000 Singapore dollars (around 72,000 euros), which is almost triple the price in 2020 when demand for new cars was lower during the pandemic.

Despite being relatively small, Singapore consistently ranks among countries with the highest number of millionaires in the world. However, local residents cannot afford the permit so easily.

Authorities introduced this system to encourage citizens to use public transport, which is ranked as one of the best in the world.

The city-state, with about 5.5 million inhabitants, had just under a million cars on its streets last year. The number of available new COEs depends on how many "older" cars disappear from the roads, Index reports.