DVLA revenues from private plate sales and transfers hit £2.09bn in the last decade - That’s a lot of numbers (and plates)
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) makes a massive £260 million a year from selling and the transferring of personalised number plates.
Revenues from this very lucrative money-spinner has more than tripled in the last decade as demand for private plates just keeps on growing in popularity.
But where does this money go?
According to the shared DVLA’s revenue records, it has earned some £2.09billion from drivers buying and transferring private plates in a decade
In 2012/13, the DVLA made £100.2million from a combination of personalised registration sales and auctions, cherished plate transfers and assignment fees.
Most recent data obtained via a Freedom of Information request issued by transport policy and research organisation RAC Foundation it showed earnings of £260.1million in 2022-23.
Some £150.5million of this was from plate sales, which accounted for 58% of the DVLA's personalised registration revenues that year.
A further £72.4million (28%) came from cherished transfer administration charges, when motorists remove their private plate from one vehicle and assign it to another or want to add it to a car or have put a personalised registration onto a retention certificate.
The remaining £37.2million (14 %) comes from assignment fees, the DLVA quoted.
These latest figures show private number plate sales and management is an absolute Treasure Trove for the Government.
Earnings from private plate sales and handling peaked in 2021-22, with the agency taking a whopping £302.9million in total that financial year.
This was driven predominantly by a spike in plate sales, which came to £181million over the 12-month period, which accounted for 60% of revenues.
According to revenue records shared by the DVLA, it has earned some £2.09billion from drivers buying and transferring private plates in a decade.
A spokesman from the DVLA has said, 'All money raised through the sales of registrations is passed to HM Treasury with a proportion of the revenue retained by the Department for Transport' – how much is held back was not confirmed.
This tends to include those identified as most popular, usually spelling out names and words using the latest age-identifying prefixes – currently the '74' plate age mark available from 1 September.
These auctions also include the most desirable combinations of letters and numbers as well as short character registrations, which are considered the most lucrative of them all.
Bidding takes place over a seven-day period of the auctions being live.
In 2023 alone, it sold 17,823 registrations via these sales with buyers spending almost £49million (including fees and taxes).
Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said: 'In a world where it can be difficult to stand out from the crowd it's easy to understand why some people are attracted to personalised number plates – call them cherished plates, vanity plates, or just a bit of fun.
'Clearly this has become big business, for the DVLA and all the independent dealers and this ‘Treasure Trove’ has proved a nice little earner for the Treasury too.
But owning the right personalised plate can also prove to be a good investment for you – especially with the value of vehicles typically falling from the moment they leave the showroom, this might just be the only bit of the car that actually increases in value.
What are the most expensive private plates sold at auction by the DVLA?
The DVLA first started selling private number plates in 1989 and its auctions have been increasingly popular ever since, with all auctions now being held online which can reach a much wider audience. All auctions used to be held at different venues up and down the country, but the last venue auction was held in October 2023.
Incredibly, one of the plates sold in the first year, 1989, still sits among the 10 priciest that the DVLA has ever sold.
'1 A' changed hands in December 1989 for £160,000, which is good enough for tenth in the list of most lucrative DVLA registration sales ever.
The most expensive of all is '25 O', which reached £400,000 (excluding fees and taxes) on 27 November 27, 2014.
In 2nd place '1 D', which changed hands for £285,000 in March 2009.
One of the more recent big hitters came in December 2021 when 'DEV 1L' - the same number plate used on Cruella De Vil's iconic car' - was won at auction for £240,000, some £308,000 when you include fees and taxes and was bought by us here at Moonstone Plates.
Big money plate H1NDU was one of two registrations auctioned by the DVLA for over £100,000 each during 2023, along with 1 DEO, which had a final hammer price of £106,090.
With fees factored in the final sum paid for these plates is considerably higher. On top of the hammer price each plate attracts a seven percent surcharge plus VAT and an additional £80 transfer fee.
DVLA data shows that the government is making increasing sums each year from the sale of private number plates online.
The amount of cash raised has increased each year, almost doubling since 2016 when 12,419 plates were sold for a total of £22.8m.
By 2020 that sum had grown to just under £34m from the sale of 14,259 plates and the upward trend shows no sign of slowing down reaching £43m by last year.
On November 27, 2014, ’25 O’ became the most expensive DVLA registration ever sold, with a total price of £400,000 (excluding fees and taxes).
It had a significant lead over ‘1 D’, which finished in second place with £285,000.
‘L1 BYA’ was the top lot in the first online auction of 2024, selling for £80,000 (about £103,000 with auction fees and VAT).
Businessman Afzal Khan reportedly turned down a massive £10 million for his 'F1' plate he bought for £440k in 2008.
However, these all pale in comparison to the biggest figure paid for a number plate globally.
The record price came in April 2023 when a bidder splashed out an incredible 55 million Dirham (£12million) on a very special Dubai plate 'P - 7' plate - which reads simply as '7' in a Dubai charity auction. This has set a new world record for the amount paid for a private plate, previously held by plate '5 - 1' (which displays as '1') in 2008, which worked out at the time at around £7.2million - that's around £5million more than the previous record held since 2008.
Investment
Investors go where the returns are good, and the performance of private number plates is pulling investors away from the traditional investment avenues, as an investor knows that certain words will continue to rise in value.
With much higher returns than wine, watches, jewellery and classic cars and art, it's not surprising that personalised plates are creating bidding wars.
One specialist said a plate can double in value in 12 months.
Buyers turn over plates very quickly, and unlike investments like cars or art there's no storage costs. You can even use this asset and drive your car with your plate on it without it losing any value!
Just as a comparison SPEEDING FINES - The UK spends over £84.4 million each year on speeding fines. The money from speeding fines goes to the consolidated fund, which is the UK government's general bank account at the Bank of England. The Department for Transport then distributes the money through grants, but this is a topic for another day!!
Looking to buy a private number plate?
Take a look on our website at the thousands and thousands of private number plates to suit all budgets with prices starting at just £275, it is a perfect & unique gift for everybody.
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