The West Kowloon Cultural District Authority recorded a basic operating deficit of HK$998 million in 2025/26, nearly 30 percent higher than a year earlier, as it prepared for the WestK Performing Arts Centre and expanded its operations. The authority attributed rising costs to work ahead of the centre’s opening, higher visitor numbers, a wider business scope and upgrades to facilities management and digital applications.
Operating expenses rose 13 percent to HK$1.854 billion. Operating revenue excluding interest increased 19 percent, from HK$645 million to HK$768 million, helped by popular exhibitions and performing-arts programmes. But interest income fell from HK$226 million to HK$88 million, leaving basic operating income including interest slightly lower at HK$856 million, compared with HK$871 million the previous year.
Visitor numbers also rose. More than 17 million visits were recorded in 2025, up from 15 million in 2024, including 2.7 million visits to M+ and 1.25 million to the Hong Kong Palace Museum. The overall cost-recovery rate improved from 37 percent to 40 percent; the rates for the Hong Kong Palace Museum, M+ and the performing-arts division were 56 percent, 47 percent and 37 percent respectively.
The WestK Performing Arts Centre is expected to open in 2027 with four performance spaces: a 1,450-seat main theatre, venues with 600 and 270 seats, and a 148-seat exhibition and performance hall.
The authority is looking to property and commercial development to ease short- to medium-term cash-flow pressure. The government conditionally relaxed its enhanced financial arrangements in July 2024, allowing residential-property sales subject to deficit limits and key performance indicators. The first tender, in area 2B, is expected in the first half of 2027, with up to 108,500 square metres of residential space and about 20,000 square metres for retail and food-and-beverage facilities.
A planned three-tower office development is also expected to be completed in 2027 and is intended to provide more stable rental income; JPMorgan Chase has reportedly agreed to lease about 250,000 square feet there. The authority says residential, hotel, commercial and cultural projects should improve future income. Its chief executive expects the government’s HK$21.6 billion one-off allocation, made in 2008, to be used up in 2026/27.