According to the latest Real Estate Statistics, NY state has approved only 12 buildings for residential co-op conversion so far this decade—and just two last year.

The likelihood is slim that Manhattan will soon see again a co-op creation boom on a par with that of the late 1980’s. Condos remain the for-sale housing development of choice among developers, lenders and marketers; and even newer rentals have crept onto the scene.

A lot of the newer condos have sprung from conversions of rental buildings. But even rentals remain a generally more appealing moneymaker for landlords than turning a building co-op; many Manhattan neighborhoods now command their highest rents ever.

“At this time, you find that vacant apartments can be rented at fair-market rents that are not stabilized,” said Arthur Weinstein, a Manhattan attorney who has been involved in residential conversions since the 1970’s. “Many landlords in the 1980’s went co-op just to take their apartments out of rent control or rent stabilization.”

Co-ops, not so much: The only co-op approved by the state this year in Manhattan—at 319-321 West 14th Street—has three units total.