Country's leading housing finance company HDFC [Get Quote] chairman Deepak Parekh said on Friday that he expects interest rates to soften by 0.25-0.50 per cent if there is no hike in the cash reserve ratio.

"Lending rates may fall by 25 basis points in first quarter of the next fiscal (April-June) if RBI does not hike the CRR rate," Parekh told reporters on the sidelines of the IMC Global Conference in Mumbai.

On housing prices, Parekh said they appear to have plateaued in suburbs, but in central areas of Mumbai or Bangalore they remain at high levels as the supply is less.

Parekh said India should not witness the flood of forex inflow going forward as investors in India were cashing out and there was a lot of redemption in the US.

The US is the top investor in India and there would be a slowdown in inflows if the world's largest economy goes into recession, he added.

The HDFC chairman said that Indian markets are now receiving funds from new investors, including US pension funds, retail investors from Japan and the Middle East oil firms.

He, however, outlined challenges from global events like the US subprime mortgage crisis and high crude oil prices, which touched $100 a barrel mark on January 2.

"India is resilient but not immune to global events...the US subprime crisis will affect India to some extent."

Elaborating, he said that while none of the Indian banks appear to be affected by it, the IT and BPO sector could feel the heat as the crisis has impacted IT spends.