@Setanta,
Quote:obsessed with hyphens
They are dying out in British English: machine-gun, to-day, head-dress, motor-car, ear-wax, all now throughly archaic. Flat hunt is perfectly understandable and extremely commonplace in a BrE context. Giving the lie to the death of the hyphen, I found this in the showbiz news section of a London radio station's website:
"Cheryl Cole to flat-hunt with Bieber?
Justin Bieber has reportedly offered to go flat-hunting with Cheryl Cole in L.A"
(Cheryl Cole is an annoying talentless UK reality TV person.)