There are no good real estate agents. They are all much of a muchness. The usual thing to do is find a neighbourhood you like. Then find an agent locally that looks well decorated. These are usually the national/larger chains.
People who are looking to let the prop will put it with every agent in the area, usually.
Asking about districts may not be helpful as Xishan for example is about 1/4 of the city.
Don't write off the idea of apartments. Many of the apartments we have seen are nicer than many of the houses we saw. They are also much more conveniently located, important with a family. I live near Dianchi, and if you have a family a car is needed as taxis are rarer than hens teeth, and buses don't run late. And we are about 12km from the city centre.
When we were looking for villas, we found that most had very small gardens. Some only about 4m square. Some were decorated very badly or were dirty (landlords don't see it as their responsibility to clean between tenants).

Finding rented houses that are decorated, and furnished is very hard. When we looked there were only about 12 on the market. Most were in a poor state or outrageously decorated and furnished from yard sales, or were 50m from a highway.
6 years ago we were paying 11 000/m for 3 bedroom in a nice area. 3 years ago were were paying 17k for four beds and a garden in same area. We now own.

Reading this I'm actually getting worried...we are also considering a possibility to move there with our child. We have never lived in an apartment, and we were hoping to live in a nice house with a garden. Probably will have to visit the place first to get an idea of what is available. We need to register her first in an international School (seems there is only one good option). Should we bring furniture or not? Are there western supermarkets ? We lived in Shanghai before and things were much simpler.

Kunming has one Metro supermarket, many Carrefours and a few Walmarts.

In Asia and most large cities, apartments offer a level of security over stand-alone homes - which also comes with an associated level of gossip mongering.

IF you rent an apartment, go for second to third floor apartments with or without elevators. Elevators tend to be slow, poorly maintained, and as the building ages - break down frequently. Stairs are ALWAYS a great alternative - ESPECIALLY during rush hour.

Why live ABOVE the ground floor? Depends on how well the city or builder has implemented the wastewater removal system aka sewage. If you're on the ground floor of a high-rise and the sewer backs up - like from heavy rainfall or some moron tossing diapers into the toilet (it's happened) - all that sewage will back up into your toilet, bathroom, and wherever else sewage can back flow.

I watched the toilet in a brand new government building cafeteria back flow...not a pretty sight - obviously flushing toilets wasn't on their completed building acceptance test.

Also - you MAY want to see @HFCAMPOs note about people's lack of respect for personal space - if you have a nice garden - you should expect certain people to use it as their personal trash can. If you don't have a fence - people will use it to "walk their dogs" aka poop on your nicely manicured lawns. If you have a nice vegetable and fruit garden - you should expect some dancing granny popping around in the dead of night (or broad daylight) to poach the fruits of your labors.

DO NOT bring furniture. Most apartments are furnished - make sure you're NOT renting a newly furnished or custom furnished apartment - the glue and paint smell may be toxic.

IF you rent a pre-furnished apartment - take pictures of EVERYTHING and EVERYWHERE along with dates - to document the fact that you haven't trashed anything when you try to leave...

@YuriCoach. If you have any kind of decent expat pay/allowance, then you can rent a house with garden or a rooftop unit with garden as someone else pointed out. If you don't care about shipping costs or the company is footing the bill, sure bring your own furniture, but it's easily purchased in Kunming or any city in China. It's always wise to visit a foreign city you+family may potentially wind up.

Thanks AlexKMG and Laotuo. The company will indeed take care of many of the expenses and we will for sure visit the place to look around. I know how 'interesting' Chinese decoration can be, but after moving so many times I'm feeling lazy about unpacking. I have no idea how big or small places are, what budget we should be looking into for a rental house or rooftop and what are the best areas to live. We will try to stay near the school...giving places are good and safe. My spoken mandarin is fairly good, reading is another story.

ok, thanks again. Last question :-), how much would an apartment cost, 3 bedrooms, in a relatively new building, where they'd have a communal garden/parc, with gym/pool (?)?

Hoekie I have a few questions.
- Have you been to China before? Where? When?
- Do you know where you will be working? Where?
- What age is your daughter? Grade?
Rule of thumb is to find a place less than 1 hour travelling distance from where you work and where your kids go to school. These 2 factors should narrow the area you are looking for.

The purpose of a real estate agent is so they can earn 1 months rent when they lease you an apartment. They are NOT interested in getting you what you want - they just want to make their commission. As was mentioned earlier, you only get an agent when you know exactly the 2 km area you are looking for.

Public transportation is very good in Kunming but the traffic problems will be your greatest obstacle.

Hi HFCAMPO: not been to China before. Right now we live in Uganda..! Not sure yet where my office will be. In Kunming, but our clients will be in the rural area (Cooperatives,farmer-led enterprises). So some travelling required :-). Our daughter will be 3 when in Kunming. So playgroup/pre-school, then KIA. Probably Bei Chen will be best option, listening to advice given so far. But playgrounds/green spots for our kid is leading...!

You should really wait until you get here so you know where your work will be. There are plenty of nice stand alone house with garden in the outskirts as well as any village. I think may be best if you will be working in rural areas. I was going to buy a house and garden in Heijing but it was not possible to buy. Renting is an option though. Good luck.