Retail brands, shrugging off the notion of a threat from e-commerce, regard Australia as a key location for store expansion, a CBRE report shows.
The commercial real estate agency's How Active Are Retailers Globally? survey puts the country in 11th place on a list of destinations retail brands are targeting, saying 19 per cent wanted to open stores in Australia. 
Germany leads with 35 per cent, followed by France (33 per cent), Britain (29 per cent), China (27 per cent) and the US (25 per cent).
"We are witnessing the strongest levels of international retailer enquiry in Australia to date and we believe we are only part-way through this cycle," CBRE's national retail director Alistair Palmer said. "The two standouts are the luxury and the premium fashion sectors."
Agent Provocateur, Escada and Cartier are some of the brands searching for retail space across Australian capitals in 2016 as they, like hotel brands, follow the strengthening tourist market.
Despite China's economic slowdown, cautious optimism is driving retailer expansion as they seek new physical footholds. Competition from online retail ranked seventh on the list of concerns cited by retailers in the CBRE report. Real estate cost escalation was the largest, at 56 per cent, followed by unclear economic prospects (42 per cent), a lack of quality retail space (37 per cent), changes in consumer behaviour (31 per cent), currency fluctuations (24 per cent) and competition from new players (22 per cent).
The proportion of survey respondents looking to open more than 40 stores has increased, with 17 per cent of 2016's about 150 respondents saying they were looking at that level of growth, up from 9 per cent in 2015.
Two-thirds of the respondents were looking to open up to 20 stores.