Skip to main content
Home The New Paper
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team

Popular

  • COURT & CRIME
  • Food & Drink
Singapore

Vintage vehicle plate number auctioned for $335,000

This article is more than 12 months old
Vintage vehicle plate number auctioned for $335,000
PHOTOS: ST FILE, INTERNET
Vintage vehicle plate number auctioned for $335,000
VINTAGE APPEAL: S-plates, such as the S 32 H (above), are hard to come by nowadays. PHOTOS: ST FILE, INTERNET
Vintage vehicle plate number auctioned for $335,000
BIDDING: Vintage vehicle registration number S 32 H fetched a cool $335,000 at an auction held by Knight Frank last week.PHOTO: KNIGHT FRANK

There are only 20 left in S'pore and just five are up for sale, says car dealer

Tan Tam Mei
Journalist
Feb 24, 2016 06:00 am
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • 0 Engagements

It costs more than an average car and is worth as much as a new five-room flat in Sengkang.

Vintage vehicle registration number 
S 32 H was sold for a cool $335,000 at a public auction held by Knight Frank at Amara Hotel last Wednesday.

The bidder who won is a local businessman.

Car dealers The New Paper spoke to said the plate number was able to fetch the high price tag because single-S plate numbers are extremely rare.

Car dealer Ivan Lim said: "The market value for a single-S car registration number is priced around $300,000. So I am not surprised by the amount the plate number was sold for."

A vehicle owner is allowed to keep a licence number as long as the fees and paper work are in order, and the number is registered to a vehicle.

Redeem FairPrice CNY figurine and stand to win $1,088
Singapore

Redeem FairPrice CNY figurine and stand to win $1,088

Feb 01, 2021

Related Stories

Hougang not pulling punches against Albirex in SPL finale

Get shopping vouchers in SPH's Black Friday & Cyber Monday campaign

MMA stars to appear in ONE Championship’s Apprentice show as guests

Mr Lim, who has over 30 years' experience in the industry, said the S 32 H plate is the 22nd licence plate to be registered in the private vehicle market in Singapore.

He added that the single-S vehicle numbers from one to 10 are currently being used for government or official vehicles.

Mr Lim also has a single-S licence plate - S 45 X - priced at $388,000 for sale on sgCarMart. He said two people have shown interest in it so far.

Mr Bobby Chng, 50, a car dealer with Eurospeed Auto, said: "Once (such plate numbers) come out in the market and are bought, they will not come out again.

"People are always looking out for them, and they are very rare."

VERY RARE

Mr Chng estimated that there are only 20 single-S registration plates left in Singapore, with just five up for sale.

The rest from that era are probably discontinued because most people back then would not have chosen to pay extra to retain the licence number, he added.

Director and head of Knight Frank's auction department, Ms Sharon Tan, said the seller of S 32 H was happy with the outcome of the auction.

She added that the seller is a prominent person in Singapore but declined to reveal more.

Ms Tan said the starting bid for the licence number, which was first commissioned about 70 years ago, began at $280,000 and saw three active bidders in the auction.

A local businessman in the aluminium industry eventually won with the final bid of $335,000.

A check on the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) OneMotoring website showed that the licence number is currently registered to a Mercedes Benz C180.

In 1997, two brothers were in a seven-year tussle over ownership of car registration number S 333 P.

They took their case to the High Court, but it was dismissed as the judge said he could not make an order to transfer the registration numbers due to a technical point with LTA's rules.

Mr Chng said that the business for vintage and unique car plates is thriving in Singapore as Singaporeans are car lovers who are particular about their cars and licence plate numbers.

"Singaporeans don't look only at the car, they also look at the car number. For the super rich, their $1.5 million sports car can't just have a normal plate. They need a nice or unique number to go along with it because it is symbolic of their status," he said.

"For other people, they might buy a 'lucky' car plate number to change their luck."

He said that his dealership sells 10 to 20 such car plates a month, and it is usually the "rich and famous" who buy them.

However, it is not always the typical auspicious numbers and letters that are popular among clients.

Mr Chng said: "Older people would choose auspicious numbers like eight or nine. But the new generation is guided by fengshui or numbers that are significant to them, like their birthdate or house number."

He said the value of a car plate number depends on what the buyer is willing to pay and what the seller will accept. He said that he had heard of someone offering $1 million for plate number SE 1 X.

Repeated or consecutive numbers and alphabets or digits that form "words" like "E A5 Y" (EASY) are also popular, said Mr Chng.

"However, single digit plates with just the number one are naturally the most expensive of all, because everyone wants to be number one and be associated with the number," he said.

For the super rich, their $1.5 million sports car can't just have a normal plate. They need a nice or unique number to go along with it because it is symbolic of their status.

- Mr Bobby Chng, 50, a car dealer with Eurospeed Auto

WHAT AROUND $335,000 CAN GET YOU

PRICEY PLATES WORLDWIDE

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Car registration plate: 1

Cost: S$20 million (US$14.3 million)


Bought by: A businessman

BRITAIN

Car registration plate: 25 O

Cost: S$1 million (£518,000)

Bought by: A car trader for a Ferrari 250 SWB

THAILAND

Car registration plate:1 Kor Kor 1111

Cost: S$980,000 (25 million baht)


Bought by: A 19-year-old law student

HONG KONG

Car registration plate: 1 L0VE U

Cost: S$250,000 (HK$1.4 million)

Bought by: A tycoon for a 1978 Panther saloon

FANCY THESE CAR PLATE NUMBERS?

Car registration plate: S 45 X

Asking price: $388,000

Car registration plate: SKT 1 L

Asking price: $138,888

Car registration plate: SP 55 H

Asking price: $108,000

Car registration plate: SX 2222 L

Asking price: $48,000

Car registration plate: E 3838 D

Asking price: $38,888

Source: sgCarMart

Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now

Singaporenumber plateUncategorisedCarauction

Tan Tam Mei

Journalist
tammei@sph.com.sg
Read articles by Tan Tam Mei
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • E-mail this article
  • Newslink -  Purchase this article for republication

Top Stories this Month

Irfan Fandi (left) with fellow Singaporean Benjamin Tan, the Thai League's deputy chief executive and director of club licensing.
Singapore Football

Irfan first S'porean to win Thai L1 title

Mar 05, 2021
Actor Terence Cao and guest charged over rule breaches at party
Singapore

Actor Terence Cao charged over rule breaches at party

Mar 03, 2021
No petal time to view sakura with Hello Kitty at Gardens by the Bay
Singapore

Catch Hello Kitty and sakura in full bloom at Gardens by the Bay

Mar 02, 2021
Home
  • Contests
  • Coupon
  • Team
  • Home
  • News
    • Singapore
    • World
    • Business
    • Views
    • Backstage
    • Others
  • Sports
    • Football
    • Singapore Football
    • Team Singapore
    • School Sports
    • Athletics
    • Basketball
    • Cricket
    • Swimming
    • Tennis
    • Golf
    • Racing
    • Others
  • Entertainment
    • Movies
    • Music
    • TV
    • Star Style
    • School of Frock
  • Lifestyle
    • Makan
    • Hed Chef
    • Weets Eats
    • Health
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Fashion
    • Shopping
    • Biker Boy
    • Celeb Chow
    • Others
  • Racing
  • Your Tip-Offs
  • Read E-Paper
  • Contact TNP
  • About SPH
  • Privacy Statement
  • Data Protection Policy
  • Member Terms & Conditions
  • Website Terms & Conditions
SPH Digital News Copyright © 2021 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. Co. Regn No. 198402868E