Singapore · Edition 9 September 2026
What owning a car in Singapore costs
You cannot buy a car in Singapore until you have bought a Certificate of Entitlement at auction. It buys no vehicle, only ten years of the right to keep one on the road. Category A closed at S$133,009 ($104,731) in the tender that ended on 9 September 2026, an all-time record (LTA open bidding, read 10 September 2026).
Current at 9 September 2026. Dollars at SGD 1.27 to US$1, the rate of 8 September 2026.
A two-year posting turns the certificate into S$3,615 a month
The certificate runs ten years and is sold whole. Leave early, deregister the car, and LTA returns the unused months: the premium times the months left, divided by 120.
Buy in September 2026, go in September 2028, and that rebate is S$106,407 of the S$133,009 you paid. Add S$6,840 from the registration fee schedule. You are still S$86,753 down on the car alone, or S$3,615 a month (LTA rebate rules via coekaki.com, read 10 September 2026).
Few people moving to Singapore run that sum first. Selling rather than deregistering softens it. Our arithmetic puts the two-year floor loss at S$40,000 to S$50,000.
The exit rebate was cut on 13 February 2026, for certificates from the second February exercise on and any car registered from that date. The five-year rate fell from 75% to 30% and the ten-year rate from 50% to 5%, with the cap halved to S$30,000 (LTA, 12 February 2026). Either leg costs this Corolla's Additional Registration Fee S$10,260. A car registered earlier keeps the old schedule for life.
The price moved S$9,119 in five weeks
Bidding closes on a Wednesday at 4pm, twice a month. Every winner pays one price, the highest losing bid plus a dollar.
| Bidding closed | Cat A, ≤1,600 cc or ≤130 bhp | Cat B, above it | Motorcycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 June 2026 | S$126,009 | — | — |
| 17 June 2026 | S$123,847 | S$123,502 | S$9,989 |
| 8 July 2026 | S$129,000 | S$130,889 | S$10,201 |
| 22 July 2026 | S$126,000 | S$129,890 | S$10,202 |
| 5 August 2026 | S$123,890 | S$129,910 | S$10,503 |
| 19 August 2026 | S$128,501 | S$131,001 | S$11,301 |
| 9 September 2026 | S$133,009 | S$135,001 | S$12,556 |
Source: motorist.sg COE results and LTA OneMotoring, read 10 September 2026. The next exercise closes on 23 September 2026.
The book dates S$128,501 to 26 August 2026, but LTA runs bidding on the first and third Monday. The second August exercise closed 19 August 2026, three weeks before 9 September, exactly as LTA's quota release describes (LTA, 24 July 2026; motorist.sg, 19 August 2026).
Waiting four weeks in July saved S$5,110. Waiting five weeks from 5 August cost S$9,119. Budget plus or minus S$5,000 for a month of timing.
The car population has grown 0% since February 2018, so the only certificates on sale are the ones deregistered cars gave back (Ministry of Transport, read 10 September 2026). LTA released 19,085 of them for August to October 2026 (LTA, 24 July 2026).
The certificate is 66% of the price, and ten years costs S$303,000
One Toyota Corolla Altis 1.6, Category A, registered this month, at the rates LTA publishes in its vehicle tax structure (read 10 September 2026).
| Line | Rate | S$ |
|---|---|---|
| Open Market Value, the car | assessed by Singapore Customs | 22,000 |
| Excise duty | 20% of that value | 4,400 |
| GST | 9% of both | 2,376 |
| Additional Registration Fee | 100% to S$20,000, then 140% | 22,800 |
| Registration fee | flat | 350 |
| Emissions scheme, Band B | neutral | 0 |
| Certificate, 9 September 2026 | at tender | 133,009 |
| Statutory subtotal | 184,935 | |
| Dealer margin and plates | an estimate | 10,000–20,000 |
| On the road | 195,000–205,000 |
The certificate is 66% of that price and the car is 11%. You pay S$7.40 of tax and certificate for every S$1 of car. The certificate alone is S$1,108 a month, or S$36.42 a day.
That daily cost buys fourteen full-fare MRT rides at S$2.57, or about six hours of car-share at the peak rate. A monthly transport pass costs S$122, so the certificate alone is worth 9.1 of them a month (Public Transport Council, 27 December 2025).
CHECK The S$22,000 open market value is our estimate. LTA publishes no value by model, and excise, GST and the fee move with it. This car was listed at S$144,888 "on the road" on 10 September 2026, which cannot contain a S$133,009 certificate (oto.com.sg). Band B is an inference; the 2026 emissions bands are unconfirmed.
Road tax on 1,598 cc is S$741.73 a year (LTA formula via smartcalculator.sg, read 10 September 2026). Pump-board 95 petrol runs S$3.36 a litre (SPC, pump prices to 7 July 2026); expats report spending less, S$2.92 to S$3.16, with card discounts down to S$2.39 (Expatistan and Numbeo, September 2026). The mileage below is an assumption.
| Line, per year | S$ |
|---|---|
| Road tax | 741.73 |
| Petrol, 15,000 km | 3,528 |
| Insurance | 1,600–2,800 |
| Season parking at home, HDB | 960–2,280 |
| A commercial bay in the CBD | 3,600–6,000 |
| Road pricing at peak | 2,880–5,760 |
| Servicing and tyres | 1,200–2,000 |
The certificate expires with nothing back, so S$198,860 is sunk. With the running lines, ten years costs S$303,000 to S$449,000: S$2,525 to S$3,740 a month. The book's comfortable single budget is S$6,240 a month, so the car is half of it.
HDB season parking runs S$80 a month on the surface up to S$190 in a car-lite zone, S$110 sheltered (HDB, read 11 September 2026). Motor insurance stays an estimate: no regulator publishes premiums, so budget S$1,600 to S$2,800 for an expatriate with a home no-claim letter (expatautoadviser.com, 2026).
This rules out more readers than it lets in
- Anyone on a Short-Term Visit Pass — the long tourist, the would-be digital nomad, the ninety-day visitor. You may drive for 12 months on a foreign licence, and you may never convert. Conversion needs a residence pass, and no nomad visa exists here.
- Anyone near the salary floor. The Employment Pass your employer files starts at S$5,600 a month, S$6,200 in finance (Ministry of Manpower, read 10 September 2026). A car at the S$3,100 midpoint is 55% of gross. At 45 or over the floor is S$10,700–11,800, and it still takes a third.
- Anyone without S$80,000 in cash. MAS caps a motor loan at 60% of value where the open market value tops S$20,000. No 100% package is legal (Ministry of Transport, 15 October 2025).
- A French licence holder who left the permit at home. A French licence is in French, so an International Driving Permit is compulsory. ANTS issues it free, and no office here does.
- Anyone who lets the twelve-month conversion clock run out. The licence stops being valid and your insurance goes with it. Up to S$10,000, three years in jail.
- A family of four totting up fares. Eight adult fares a day cost S$616.80 a month, four unlimited passes S$488 (Public Transport Council, 27 December 2025). A car is 6.4 times four passes.
Not owning costs S$130 to S$250 a month
| Rank | What you do | What it costs |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Trains and buses, the odd Grab | S$130–250 a month; unlimited pass S$122 |
| 2 | Car-share by the hour | GetGo S$3 to S$9 an hour, S$0.44 a km |
| 3 | A motorcycle | S$12,556 on 9 September 2026, then Class 2B for a year |
| 4 | A used car registered before 13 February 2026 | fewer months, and the old rebate schedule |
| 5 | Renew an expiring certificate | S$126,208 for ten years, S$63,104 for five |
| 6 | Buy new | S$195,000–205,000, S$80,000 of it in cash |
Twenty hours and 300 km a month costs about S$233 on GetGo. That is how most foreigners here drive, and getting around Singapore without a car is cheaper still.
BlueSG paused and relaunched as Flexar, run by the same operator, now with 200-plus cars across 331 stations (Flexar, read 11 September 2026). Flexar bills by the minute, not the hour, from S$0.55 a minute.
The three monthly budgets in Singapore, honestly run seven lines each, including the S$130, S$250 and S$900 transport rows.
What this page does not cover
- The six-line MRT table, with the three dated extensions to 2030
- The same certificate arithmetic on a BMW 3-series, and what Category B adds
- Three monthly budgets — S$2,530, S$6,240 and S$15,470 — seven lines each
- The licence conversion in order: the S$6.50 theory test, the five documents, the office
- Nine neighbourhood profiles, including why Sentosa Cove assumes a car
All of it is in Singapore, honestly — 23 pages, $29. See what's inside
Related
The rent decides the car, so read where foreigners actually live in Singapore first. The salary floors behind both sit in the Employment Pass rules. Still choosing? Compare all ten cities on transport and rent.
Written by Mihailo Pavlovic. We last changed this page on 21 September 2026.