There are two campuses in and around Chennai
One in Katankulathur .
And other in Ramapuram which is located inside the city .
The hostel and mess fees is very high so students opt to rent a house and hire a cook for food ..
If the rent cost around 12k INR then you can share the room with 2 friends so the rent would be around 4K per person (48k per year which is half of SRM’s hostel fee )
And as for your question. Students stay in Estancia in Katankulathur and are many , many apartments near Ramapuram you can make use of such as Kiruba Cirus,Jain’s ,etc. The cost of being a paid guest and renting a room would almost be the same .