Yes, ground floor. You do often get a small garden area. However, even in a good neighborhood you can get people spit or throw trash out of their windows. We had this in Shanghai.

I agree with Vicar. Buy inside the first or second ring roads. Buy based on location (maybe near a subway stop would be good). I bought a two bedroom second hand dump 2 years ago for 400k. I don't think prices for second hand properties have gone up since then. I plan to be around for a while though, so I can afford to wait until they tear it down. BTW, I think I heard KM city halted destruction of old properties for a while because they can't afford to compensate the owners.

Amazing amount of responses on a one line question. Ok it had tree points in it:

1. Nice area.
This is rather subjective. Depends all on what you think is nice. For some people it is nice that their favourite watering hole is in crawling distance of their house and then you have to be in the city centre. For others nice means a big lawn and a garden pool and then the city centre is not the place to be.
2. Good price.
Again rather subjective. The roof leaks, the toilet is a blocked hole in the ground but well I paid shit nothing for it so it was a good price.
3. Deal.
Well there are many types of deal. The previous owner was in desperate need for money because his child needed an urgent expensive operation so he was willing to sell way below market prices; well there is a deal in that.

Without further knowledge it is impossible to give a sensible advice. The advice given before that it has to be within the second ring road very much is subjective to other points.
Within the second ring road prices are way higher and especially for places with parking places. So it depends if you need a car or not. (In my area the price of houses went up some 30% in the last 5 years but the price of parking places 250% and this is outside the second ring road. My buying price of the parking place was 3 times the new price of my car).

Some general thoughts:
Kunming is more than the city centre. You don’t have to live there if you don’t have to be there on a daily base.
Traffic is getting worse and worse and there is no sign that this will improve. Selecting an area should take this into account.
In Kunming there are some peculiar habits that take place on certain times. So looking at a place during a Sunday afternoon thus not give you the full picture:
1. At night there might be a BBQ area right in front of your favoured place. Not everybody will appreciate this.
2. In the early evening some guys come out and start hitting spinners with big whips. This makes a sound like you have some snipers living in your apartment block.

3. Early in the morning and rather late in the evening some elderly ladies come out with a ghetto-blaster which they put at max volume and practise some movements. Nice the first time you see it but it gets rather irritating if you wake up by it.

Further it is advised to look for some water around the place. In winter and during the day it might be a nice distraction of all the concrete but the mosquitoes they produce might make your balcony useless. Check as well how the garbage is handled at the place. If this under your apartment than especially in summer this might not be such a good deal.
In summer an apartment facing north might be nicely cool but in winter you will appreciate an apartment facing south, anyway will save you a small fortune in heating cost.

Don't buy an apartment, that's my advice!

i'm glad i haven't bought into the hype.
Nothing lasts in china so it's best to be mobile

If you have kids and plan to stay in China I think it's very important to invest in a home. In the future the home can be used to live in rent free so no concern for inflation (more spare cash per month for your retirement care) or even sold for good profit. And what are rent prices gonna be like in the future? Renting out the property could be another profitable option.

My advice is if you can buy even a small apartment, do it. Especially if you are going to stay long term. Rents are going up so fast in Kunming.

If you want to make a profit, buy a property in a desirable location, clean it up (or strip it bare), and then put it up for sale again within a year. If you want a place to live until you die, forget it unless you are already in your 70s as any Chinese made building will only last a fraction of your lifetime, 25 years at best. The construction is shoddy and the maintenance is poor. These assets cannot appreciate forever!

I've been in my flat (renting) for over ten years, was built about 1993 - solid enough but a bit ratty, but a lot of people in the compound seem to have fixed up their flats, glassed in their small balconies, improved kitchens etc., and they look okay. Stairwells are rather grotty. Value of these properties has increased a great deal since I moved in, but I don't know about the future.

They have just torn down a village, about 2km south of DaShangHui. The architecture and construction is the same as another area, built in the early 90s.