SINGAPORE, Oct 4 Reuters To own a car in Singapore, a buyer must bid for a certificate that now costs 106,000, equivalent to four Toyota Camry Hybrids in the U.S., as a postpandemic recovery has driven up the cost of the citystate39;s vehicle quota system to alltime highs.

Singapore has a 10year certificate of entitlement COE system, introduced in 1990, to control the number of vehicles in the small country, which is home to 5.9 million people and can be driven across in less than an hour.

The quota, offered through a bidding process, has made it the most expensive city in the world to buy a car, with the COE for a large car more than quadrupling from 2020 prices on Wednesday to a record S146,002 106,376.68.

Including COE, registration fees and taxes, a new standard Toyota Camry Hybrid currently costs S251,388 183,000 in Singapore, compared with 28,855 in the U.S. A small, governmentsubsidised flat in Singapore costs about S125,000.

In 2020, when fewer people in Singapore were driving, the price of COEs dropped to about S30,000; a postCOVID increase in economic activity has led to more car purchases while the total number of vehicles on the road is capped at about 950,000. The number of new COEs available depends on how many older cars are deregistered.

The skyrocketing price puts cars firmly out of reach of most middleclass Singaporeans, putting a dent in what sociologist Tan Ern Ser said was the Singapore Dream of upward social mobility having cash, a condominium…