When the doors open on October 31, it will be the final piece of the redevelopment of the 250 metre strip, which currently ranks as the eighth most expensive shopping street, in terms of rent, in the world.

In anticipation of the same queues of eager shoppers that occurred for the opening of Zara at the other end of the mall, H&M has hired extra bollards that will snake along the street.

To whet the appetite of excited shoppers, H&M have installed a collection of beach-style boxes at the front of its new store, in what was previously the Glasshouse arcade, owned by Stockland and Investa​. The Sydney city H&M store will be one of its biggest in the global portfolio.

Next door will be a new Zara home collection, which all sit opposite the recently-opened Forever 21 fashion group.

The pop up H&M boxes will also spring up at Circular Quay and Bondi Beach to get the message out that H&M has arrived in the City.

H&M Australia's manager Hans Andersson said the Sydney city store will be the eighth for the group across the country.

It opened in Melbourne's former GPO in April 2014 with red carpets and rock star-style barricades and more recently arrived in AMP Capital Shopping Centre's Macquarie Centre at Macquarie Park.

The other new stores will be in Eastlands, Melbourne and Queen Street Mall, Brisbane.

Next year the group will also launch in New Zealand.

Coming to Australia has proved a bonanza for the Swedish retailer, with records showing it had $65 million in sales from the first seven months of trade at the GPO store.

"We are very excited and can't wait to show Sydney our new store," Mr Andersson said.

"The new store will be very big and we will offer a large range of fashion and out homewares collection. Australia has been very successful for us and once the physical stores are established we will look at an online site."

Mr Andersson, who first saw the proposed site five years ago, said the Australian retail sector was good for fast fashion retailers.

"We perform well in good times and even better in bad times, as people look for cost effective clothes," he said.

"Fast fashion does not mean poor quality, and we are also seeing a lift by the Australian designers in response to the arrival of the overseas brands. Retail has a bright future in Australia."

Adding to its presence, H&M is also opening its sister store, Collection of Style (COS), aimed at the older market, in the revamped 5 Martin Place, previously the Commonwealth Bank on the corner of Pitt Street.

"2015 has been a very big year for H&M Australia and 2016 will be even bigger," he said.

It comes as the world's largest real estate agency, Cushman & Wakefield said that the Central Business District (CBD) of Sydney needed to adopt a greater Asian focus to improve the liveability of the city centre.

The C&W report said around  2700 residential units are forecast to be completed in the next five years, which will add about 5700 persons to the CBD resident population – equivalent to 20 per cent growth.

Mr Andersson agreed saying retailers and landlords need to have more flexible shopping hours as people work later these days.

"By closing at 5.30pm, the mall landlord is really saying, don't come here. We must listen to the customer who want shops open later and also the tourists, who are heading to Sydney's city to shop," he said.