New Zealand’s current digital cadastre is 2D with 3D situations handled via TIFF plan, section and elevation graphics and supporting textual information. The development of a 3D digital cadastre will enable the 3D spatial extents of property rights, restrictions and responsibilities to be captured, validated, lodged, integrated with existing data, visualised, and made available for use in other systems. Recent research has concluded that the most appropriate way for New Zealand to develop a 3D digital cadastre is to build upon its existing system. The 2D digital cadastre would continue to be the default layer with 3D situations displayed as and where necessary. To enable this requires a new approach to handling parcels defined in 3D (i.e., limited in their vertical extents). The representation of a parcel as a ‘spatial object’ is being considered to allow parcels limited in height to be integrated into the digital cadastre and subsequently maintained. A spatial object would represent the size and shape of the 3D parcel being defined – a polyhedron. It would need to be related to an underlying primary parcel through a defined relationship to either boundary points or permanent reference marks. The representation of the spatial object would be maintained in the digital cadastre through this relationship to its underlying primary parcel. In April this year Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) announced plans to replace its electronic survey and title system, known as Landonline, through a programme of work known as Advanced Survey and Title Services (ASaTS). The introduction of Landonline in the early 2000s took the New Zealand cadastral survey system on a significant step forward into the digital information age. It provides for the electronic capture, validation, lodgement, recording and supply of cadastral survey data in situations where the spatial extents of rights, restrictions and responsibilities are defined in the horizontal sense. However, analogue procedures (scanned imagery) were retained for handling surveys that defined these in the vertical sense. The ASaTS programme provides an excellent opportunity to consider the way in which cadastral survey data is handled. The Office of the Surveyor-General at LINZ has been exploring ideas to further develop the cadastral survey system with a particular focus being the development of a 3D digital cadastre. This paper will explain the work being undertaken by LINZ to transition New Zealand’s 2D digital cadastre to 3D. The authors are especially keen to test ideas, such as the use of spatial objects, with the international community.