The Indian real estate market is seeing demand increasing but a full-fledged recovery was still some time away according to DLF, India’s largest house builder.

Group executive director Rajeev Talwar said debt reduction was still high on the agenda, but there were no plans for further capital raisings before the fiscal year ends in March. The developer’s founding family raised $780 million by selling shares to institutions in May.

DLF along with other Indian developers have been hit by a crash in India’s once-soaring property market. Prices fell by as much as 50 per cent during the global financial meltdown, and are estimated to have recovered about 20 per cent from their lows.

“You are now hitting an upside cycle, but you are not really at the crest itself,” he said at the Reuters India Investment Summit.

In property, he expected housing would be the first to see demand recover, followed by commercial real estate in India and then the retail segment.