Despite George Osborne’s war on landlords, including the Stamp Duty surcharge which kicked in on April 1, this month’s Property and Investor Show has been hailed a major success.

Visitor numbers were the highest since 2008, said organiser Nick Clark, and seminars were packed. Clark described the turnout as “one in the eye for Osborne”.

Visitor numbers were 13% up on last year, said director Mike Doyle.

He said: “Given the Chancellor’s autumn tax assault on the Landlord/BTL investor, a number of regular clients admitted to being “open minded” about what impact this would have on visitor attendance.

“However, from ten weeks out the registration numbers continued to track between 10% and 15% up on the comparable period last year.

“Seminar bookings were also healthy – so the final visitor figure did not come as a surprise (to the organisers at least!). The exhibitors were very pleased.”

Doyle said it was notable that while tax-related seminars drew big audiences, so did sessions aimed at novice investors.

Doyle said: “That suggests that the appeal of property investment remains untarnished.

“As one exhibitor reminded us ‘ … there are visitors in this hall approaching 30 years of age who were still at school when the Northern Rock collapsed in 2007’ – people who have not personally experienced a business collapse in their working lifetimes.”

A number of agents were among exhibitors, including Sequence and Northwood.

Northwood managing director Eric Walker said: “It was immensely successful. No one asked about tax but there seminars covering this. We enjoyed an unbelievable amount of leads and had many instructions as a result. Undoubtedly the best show in years with many very positive landlords.”