However less than a month away from the start of the new year there are still a lot of uncertainties. A large majority of all the apartment buildings in the country are still without energy efficiency certificates. Private owners, who wish to sell or rent their apartments, are not aware of the steps they have to take. Around one thousand energy efficiency certificates have already been issued in Slovenia, but mostly for individual houses and not for apartment buildings.

The demand for energy efficiency certificates is somewhat higher today. But there are still many apartment buildings which haven't even started the procedure for obtaining an energy certificate, says Metod Ivančič, who is one of those issuing the certificates.

If we would want to issue certificates for all the real estate in the country currently for sale, or available for rent, we would need at least several months. Ivančič expects an even higher demand in March, when those who fail to show energy efficiency certificates to potential buyers or tenants, could face a fine of up to 300 euros. Starting next year all those who will fail to include the energy efficiency information in selling or renting ads will face fines of 250 euros. Indeed, energy certificates are not compulsory for apartment buildings, but they do become necessary when someone decides to sell or rent their own apartment.

In some cases individual apartment owners try reach an agreement with other owners to obtain a joint energy efficiency certificate for the whole building, but soon run into opposition. And according to Ivančič, it is often the case that individual apartments within a building cannot even obtain a certificate, because they have no separate heating system of their own.

The Ministry of Infrastructure plans to solve this problem with new regulation which is to come into effect by the end of the year. However other issues will also have to be addressed; according to some information a number of real estate ads already include incorrect energy figures.