This paper describes the challenges facing Albania and other eastern European countries as they move towards a private property system that requires a comprehensive cadastre and land registration system (C&LRS). The foundation of a C&LRS is created through the survey and mapping of individual parcels. The challenge in Albania is to put in place an orderly C&LRS before an active land market emerges involving the transfer, subdivision, and consolidation of property parcels. To achieve this, it will be necessary to survey over 2 million parcels. If this goal is to be achieved within the existing time constraints, it will be essential to select the most effective approaches towards surveying and mapping. This paper describes the existing surveying and mapping environment in Albania, as well as the most feasible options. An evaluation model has been developed as a means of evaluating the most effective approach under different circumstances. By collecting data on Inputs, field conditions, and productivity during the first part of a C&LRS project, this research aims to identify how competitive existing approaches are with respect to other more modern approaches such as GPS.