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July 25, 2014

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City looks to bring secondhand car plates sales into auction system

SECONDHAND car plates are set to be included in the city’s auction system as currently they sell privately for almost 50,000 yuan (US$8,070) more than new ones.

While new plates cannot be sold for three years, this price gap has seen motorists with license plates try to buy a new set at auction, then sell their old ones for a big profit.

Officials hope that ending this practice will increase the chances of bidders with a genuine need for a city plate being successful. Currently, demand is almost 20 times supply.

“This is one of the reasons,” Shanghai Transport Commission spokesman Huang Xiaoyong told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

“New policies will be introduced as soon as they’re ready.”

Huang said a detailed plan is being formulated and gave no date for a launch.

At present, Shanghai’s secondhand car plates trade privately for up to 120,000 yuan.

In comparison, at last month’s auction of new plates, the average successful bid was 73,896 yuan.

A price ceiling introduced last year for new plates has reined in their prices.

Under new car plate auction rules issued by Shanghai government last month, the city is to build up a centralized management system for in-use plates.

The transport commission said that means the city’s secondhand car plates can now be better managed.

But for now at least, an unregulated market is booming.

‘For today only’

A secondhand plate agent told Shanghai Daily yesterday that he was willing to pay 98,000 yuan for a private plate.

“The price is only for today. If you come back in a few days time, the price will be different.

“We’ve heard that new policies are being introduced,” added the agent.

Agents can sell on plates for between 100,000 yuan to 120,000 yuan.

The chances of securing a new car plate at auction reached an all-time low of 5.5 percent last month, when 135,677 participants bid for 7,400 private plates.

In an attempt to reduce the number of bidders, a new rule last month stated that only driving license holders can bid and successful bidders cannot take part in the auction again for three years.




 

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