2,000 HDB families own 3+ cars in Singapore

Ms Ng and her brother typically take turns to ferry her nephew between his school in Dover and their home, as there is no direct bus service.

Ms Ng’s boyfriend drives his Mercedes-Benz E200 to and from his workplace in Bukit Batok.

Elsewhere, product manager N. Tan, 44, his retired mother, and younger brother live in an HDB flat in Yio Chu Kang, and they each own a car.

Mr Tan uses his Volkswagen Touran throughout the day to meet clients daily across multiple locations. He said using ride-hailing services would be more costly than funding his own car in the long run.

He also takes his children to school in Bukit Timah and his wife to her workplace at one-north every weekday morning.

Mr Tan’s younger brother is still waiting for his matrimonial home to be ready, so he mostly uses his BYD M6 to drive his wife around and visit his in-laws.

Mr Tan’s mother uses her Mercedes B-Class to meet friends and family.

He said having three cars is especially useful during emergencies.

He said: “If my child is unwell late at night, I could take him or her and go straight to the hospital. But if I use a ride-hailing service or take the public transport, there will be a delay.

“In my line of work, I have colleagues waiting for an hour for a car on a ride-hailing service to get to their next appointment.”

Mr Tay told The Straits Times he had raised the parliamentary question on behalf of a resident, after realising there was no publicly available information on car ownership across different housing types.

The resident, said Mr Tay, had suggested the possibility of imposing a levy on people who have two or more cars.

In July, a commentary in The Business Times suggested that the car ownership system could borrow ideas from the additional buyer’s stamp duty (ABSD) regime, which applies to properties. For instance, a premium could be levied on those who buy more than one car, and on permanent residents, foreigners and companies buying cars.

This is similar to how Singaporeans and PRs, for instance, have to pay the ABSD for their second and subsequent home purchases.

In response, the Ministry of Transport had said progressive car ownership here is mostly achieved through the additional registration fee – the main car tax – with owners of cars with higher open market value already paying more.

Dr Samuel Chng, research assistant professor at the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), said 2,000 HDB households owning at least three cars was noteworthy, although it was small in proportion. There were 1.13 million HDB flats as at 2024, according to the Singapore Department of Statistics.

Dr Chng, who heads SUTD’s Urban Psychology Lab at the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities, said it was not entirely surprising for a small segment of households to accumulate multiple vehicles for practical reasons.

He noted these households could be multi-generational ones with several working adults, families using vehicles for business and personal use, and those with specific transport needs for caregiving or hobbies.

He added this figure also reflects some drivers’ lifestyle preferences or the perceived convenience of owning cars, despite Singapore’s strong disincentives to car ownership.

But Dr Chng does not expect this trend to rise significantly due to policy constraints, rising costs and the steady improvement of public transport options. These factors would make owning three cars increasingly impractical for most households.

The Government has adopted a zero vehicle population growth rate since February 2018, except for goods vehicles and buses.

The vehicle population is controlled through the supply of certificates of entitlement (COEs), which are needed to register a vehicle in Singapore.

In recent months, COE premiums for smaller cars soared to all-time highs, but

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