Why driving in Singapore is like “wearing a Rolex”

Andre Lee bought a used Kia Forte to strengthen his career as an insurance agent in Singapore. In his mind, he saw himself leaving the city in his black coupe, impressing potential customers.

“It’s the same as the official wear of leather shoes or wearing a Rolex,” said Lee, 33, said of the two -door car he bought in 2020.

Mr Lee paid $ 24,000 for the 2010 model, about five times what the car would have been introduced in the United States. Why the mark?

Singapore, an island-state smaller than New York, charges the drivers thousands of dollars only for the right to buy a vehicle. The price of licenses, which were imported in 1990 to limit pollution and congestion, is increasing with the value of the car.

The price that Mr Lee paid for his car, including the license, was on the cheapest side. Some drivers pay so much $ 84,000 for the 10 -year document, known as the right certificate.

“I know people who better treat their vehicles than their family because they cost more to maintain a car than a family sometimes,” Mr Lee said. (His own family gave him money for Kia.)

There is no reason for many Singapore to own a car. Most residents are based on an expanding and affordable public transport system that extends throughout the island. Even long trips cost less than Singapore’s $ 2.50, or about $ 2, and the platforms riding with a ride, such as rapture, are plenty.

Still, twice a month, aspiring car owners and delegates are offered for a fixed number of licenses determined by the Singapore authorities.

The country’s decades -long campaign to restrict car ownership has worked: there are about 11 passenger vehicles per 100 people there, well below more than 80 cars and trucks in the United States and about 75 for similar vehicles in Italy.

Singapore is not the first to tax cars as part of the efforts to tackle pollution and traffic. In 1989, the city of Mexico began to regulate how many cars were circulating daily. London and Stockholm later introduced congestion pricing. New York followed this year, became the first in the United States to do so.

But none of these cities charge so much to own a car.

The most accurate license in Singapore increased about 18 % to more than $ 84,000 in March since the previous year. But the increasing cost does not seem to have discouraged sales. The government increased $ 4.86 billion from license sales in 2024, nearly 40 percent more than he had estimated.

For the richest residents of Singapore, who hosts a growing number of billionaires, the launch of tens of thousands of dollars for a car license is not a big deal.

Su-Sanne Ching, who manages an entry-out-of-start business, bought a Mercedes-Benz sedan so she could drive herself and her parents around. The license alone costs $ 60,000, increasing the total price to about $ 150,000. (A similar model in the United States would have run $ 48,450.)

“I pay the price for convenience,” he said.

But for the middle class, especially those who have children, the increasing cost of license is forcing a difficult choice.

Joy Fang and her husband bought a used Hyundai Avante in 2022 for $ 58,000, including the license, to transfer their two children to school and daily care. The price of the car-almost twice the pre-priced price of a new model of this sedan-makes it cease.

“Certainly not worth it when you weigh the cost against how often we use it,” he said. Each month the couple pays about $ 1,400, or more than 10 % of the household budget, car, license and other expenses such as road taxes, fuels and parking. To offset the cost, they reduce food and travel.

But Juggling’s thinking a stroller, two children and the various public transport bags make it the blanch.

“Honestly, I feel like we are caught up in a commitment,” he said.

Treating the alternative to become more like Jakarta or Bangkok, other southeast Asian cities that are regularly drowning with traffic, Singapors prefer quieter roads, said Chua Beng Huat, a Sociology Professor at the National University.

“We don’t sit in circulation for two or three hours just to get to work,” he said. Having an effective public transport system, it also makes it easier for Singapore not to use a car and takes it when it needs to go downtown.

But he still has a SUV he uses to get his grandchildren around the city.

For other car owners, mathematics sometimes get too hard to justify. Mr Lee, the insurance agent, sold his Kia three years after bought it. The cost of maintenance, parking and fuel accumulated and was not convinced that he had been translated into more businesses.

These days, Mr Lee is mostly taking the public transport. If he needs to meet a client, he borrows from his father’s Nissan Qashqai.

“I had other priorities and I didn’t see the car being top of the list,” he said.