Recently,many large and medium-sized real estate companies in China have attempted to construct a standard project management system regarding project culture,organization and value chain,to enhance their ability of integrating resources and effectively delivering projects.An appropriate definition of project phases is the base of standard management for these enterprises.According to the existed literature and the observation of some real estate companies,a Six-Phase(SP) approach is presented.The method standardizes real estate project in China by dividing a project life cycle into six phases.A case study shows that the six phases correspond appropriately with those suggested by the departments of four real estate companies.An industry survey by means of questionnaire has also been conducted.The respondents,most of which are the CEOs from 50 real estate companies in China,agreed that this approach is reasonable and acceptable.