CONCEPCION, Chile—A powerful earthquake off the coast of Chile that killed more than 700 people likely caused more than $2 billion in insured losses, catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide Corp. said Monday.

But the quake might have caused significantly more damage had the country not adopted stricter building codes, experts say.

The magnitude 8.8 quake hit early Saturday, causing death and widespread property damage in central Chile, particularly in Concepcion and Santiago.

According to AIR Worldwide, the area most severely affected by the quake contains residential and commercial properties with an insurable value of about $275 billion. Of this, about 70% is in the Santiago area and about 5% in Concepcion. However, earthquake insurance is only bought by about 10% of residential policyholders and about 60% of commercial policyholders, the Boston-based modeling firm said in a statement.

Economic damage is expected to be in the range of $15 billion to $30 billion, according to EQECAT Inc., an Oakland, Calif.-based catastrophe modeling company.

Up to 65% of the damage is expected to be to residential structures, with commercial damage accounting for 20% to 30% and industrial damage expected to be 15% to 20%, EQECAT said in a client note.

While the quake caused a “major disaster, Chile's widespread adoption and enforcement of modern, seismic-resistant building practices has mitigated the potential for devastation,” EQECAT said in the note.

In contrast with Haiti where a massive January quake devastated the country, Chile's building practices appear to have lessened the impact of the quake, experts agreed.

Imelda Powers, a Philadelphia-based manager of Towers Watson & Co.'s catastrophe modeling group and a senior consultant in reinsurance brokerage, said Chile has stringent codes on how new structures must be built in the earthquake-prone region.

While news reports from the affected area said some high-rise buildings collapsed, many remain upright, Ms. Powers said. “Their properties are well-engineered,” she said, adding that high-rises generally have to meet more stringent standards than other structures.

AIR Worldwide said Chile's building codes were revised in 1993 with significant advances over previous versions.

Chile experiences a magnitude 7 or higher quake at least every five years, Mehrdad Mahdyiar, director of earthquake hazard at AIR Worldwide, said in the statement. “There is high earthquake awareness in the country,” he said. “As a result, Chile has more stringent building codes than its neighbors, superior construction quality, and possibly the most highly engineered building inventory in Latin America. This will undoubtedly help mitigate the damage.”

Ms. Powers noted that Chile experienced a magnitude 9.5 quake in 1960—the strongest ever recorded worldwide—and a magnitude 8 quake in 1985. With Saturday's quake, that means three major quakes happened 25 years apart. “That's a very high-frequency,” she said.

With such a high frequency of earthquakes in Chile, coverage likely is “extremely expensive” in the country, Ms. Powers said.