Certificate of Entitlement

The Certificate of Entitlement (COE) is the quota licence for owning a vehicle in Singapore. The licence is obtained from a successful winning bid in an open bid uniform price auction which grants the legal right of the holder to register, own and use a vehicle in Singapore for a period of 10 years. When demand is high, the cost of a COE can exceed the value of the car itself. The COE system was implemented in 1990 to regulate the number of vehicles on the road and control traffic congestion, especially in a land-constrained country such as Singapore.