My wife and I decided to take the plunge and take a career break from corporate life in our 40's. We have really enjoyed visiting Kunming and Yunnan on holidays in the past, and now want to rent a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Kunming for 6 months.

We have absolutely no idea where to start as we cannot find any online real estate agents with an English version of their websites.

Does anyone know any such sites, or can they give us some advice on how we should go about doing this? We would like to live quite centrally and are looking to rent from about the middle of July.

Hi Marco!

I've actually just finished moving so I can tell you the general process.

The fastest way to find a house is to go through an agent and pay the one month agent's fee. All agents I've dealt with were pretty reputable, haven't had a problem yet.

For a 2 bedroom apartment in the city center, expect to pay anywhere from 1500 - 2500 or more depending on the exact location and furnishings. A standard contract is usually one year, you can try to talk the landlord down to a 6 months contract but it might be very difficult. Payment choice is usually 1 year in advance or 6 months.

As far as English agents, I've haven't come across any. However, there are many posting here in Gokunming that offers apartments for rent, I think I've seen a few just a few days ago.

Hope this helps.

Hi Tony,
Many thanks for your fast response. It is much appreciated. We will check the postings on GoKunming when we arrive and will take your advice re approaching agents.

I'm moving out of a 3 bedroom apartment at the end of the month. It's located just off of Wenlin Road between the Yunnan University and Green Lake. It's got the largest outdoor balcony in the area and one of the nicest shower/bathrooms I've seen in Kunming. If you are interested, I can set you up with the landlord. I've been paying 2500, but rent is going up the 3000. I'm pretty convinced she would settle for something like 2700 or 2800. No middle man fees necessary. I never like to work with agents as they take a full month's rent as their fee. Cheers

We are an American family living on the west side of Kunming, near the west side Walmart. We are going to be gone from June through Dec. 2010, and our roomy 2-level apartment will be available from Sept through December. (fully furnished) We are well connected by bus to downtown - takes about 25 minutes. Two bedroom apartments in this part of town are 1500 to 2000 per month, again depending on the furnishings. Our rent is going up to 3000/month, however, we are willing to sublet for 2000 plus water and electricity. Internet is paid. We have 5 bedrooms.

Hi Colinflahive and racefire.
Thank you for bringing your apartments to our attention. They both sound great places and worth looking at. However, we will not be in Kunming until the second week in July (currently in Beijing), and we wouldn't want to hold up your marketing. If they are still available when we are there, we would certainly be interested in a viewing.

We have just arrived in Kunming today and now need to start the search for a nice 2-3 bedroom flat with Western WC/bathrooms. Ideally 6 months but willing to consider longer for the right place. Can anybody help please?
(Colinflahive and Racefire. Are the two you mentioned still available for viewing?). Finally, does anyone know of any new apartment blocks in Kunming that have just come on the market? (We thought this might be worth a try).

Hi: racefire is in the US now for 6 months, we manage their apartment. It would have been easier if you posted this on classifieds, then we could have written to you rather than posting here.
Racefire's apartment is available now, but we do have a booking for the whole month of August, so this may not work for you--unless you find something else till the end of August. All the best! (Again, please post to classifieds!)