Singapore Closes the Private-Hire Car Loan Loophole From Today: Individuals Buying Private-Hire Cars Face the Same 60%/70% Caps and Seven-Year Limit as Private Car Buyers

From today, October 30, Singapore extends motor-vehicle financing restrictions to cars registered as private-hire cars (PHCs) and bought by individuals. The Ministry of Transport, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Ministry of Energy, Trade and Industry and the Ministry of Law announced jointly on October 29 that individual buyers, including sole proprietors, will face the same loan limits as other private car buyers, closing a gap under which individually owned PHCs were exempt.

What the new rules say

The cap depends on the car's open market value (OMV), its base cost before taxes: for an OMV of S$20,000 or less, buyers may borrow up to 70% of the purchase price; above S$20,000, the maximum is 60%. The purchase price includes relevant taxes and the Certificate of Entitlement (COE) price, where applicable. The tenure of any motor-vehicle financing arrangement is capped at seven years, covering loans from financial institutions and licensed or exempt moneylenders as well as hire-purchase and conditional sale agreements. The rules apply to purchases with sales agreements signed on or after October 30; where there is no agreement, they apply if the COE is obtained on or after that date. Business-owned PHCs, commercial vehicles and motorcycles remain exempt.

Why the loophole is being closed

The authorities said more individuals have been registering PHCs with no intention of offering ride-hailing services, with individually owned self-drive PHC registrations recently running at about 500 a month — suggesting some buyers were seeking more generous financing. Individuals have been allowed to register PHCs since 2017, and their cars were previously exempt from the curbs because they were treated as commercial-use vehicles. The government said it considered creating a separate COE category for PHCs and car-leasing companies but decided against it over concerns it could raise rental costs for drivers and fares for passengers; it will keep monitoring financing practices, including in-house loans, so the restrictions apply consistently.