Real estate investors are forever looking for fast-growth markets to give them a tide that will lift their boats. A joint study from the Brookings Institution and JP Morgan Chase indicates investors would do well to point those vessels toward China and Turkey.

Macau was the world’s top-performing metro area in 2014, followed by the Turkish cities of Izmir, Istanbul and Bursa, according to the report. But the US cities of Austin; Fresno, Calif; Houston; and Raleigh, North Carolina; and the UK cities of London and Manchester also ranked among the 60 fastest-growing metro economies worldwide.

This year’s Global MetroMonitor, the fourth edition of the report, analyses 2013–2014 data on the performance of the world’s 300 largest metropolitan areas based on annual growth rates of GDP per capita and employment. The study combines these two economic indicators into an economic performance index on which the 300 metro areas are ranked. The 300 largest metropoli